Aquafarming and Its Impact on Rural Communities of Bangladesh

The study was conducted to evaluate the impact of aquafarming on rural communities particularly on the fishermen in terms of socio-economic condition in some selected area of Muktagacha upazila in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. For collection of data through participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools with a well-structured questionnaire from July to December, 2017 a total of sixty fishermen were selected randomly. Twelve livelihood aspects of fishers were selected and Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to evaluate the changes of socio-economic status. The findings of the study revealed that through aquaculture majority of the respondents about 58.3% moderately changed their livelihood status, while 31.7% reached higher level and only 10% of the respondents were under lower level. Out of twelve selected livelihood aspects seven were positively correlated but four of them had no relationship with their changing livelihood pattern through aquafarming. The survey identified that fishermen faced various problems such as social, economic and technical. Mostly lack of capital, illiteracy on fish farming, unawareness on health, vulnerability and few institutional supports were the main constraints in their upliftment. The findings of the research revealed that aquafarming resolutely contributing for the development of socio-economic condition of fishers in the explored area and recommended that GOs, NOGs and stakeholders should take more steps for sustainable development.