Faltering fisheries and ascendant aquaculture: Implications for food and nutrition security in Bangladesh

By B. Belton, Imke Josepha Mariana van Asseldonk, Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted. 2014

140 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Bangladesh has made considerable progress against human development indicators in recent years, but malnutrition resulting from poor dietary diversity and low micronutrient intakes remains entrenched. Fish is central to the Bangladeshi diet and small fish species are an important micronutrient source. Although fish consumption per capita has increased in recent years as a result of rapid expansion of aquaculture, it is likely that consumption of fish from capture fisheries (including small indigenous species particularly rich in micronutrients), has declined. This paper evaluates data on fish consumption collected in Bangladesh by the International Food Policy Research Institute in 1996/7 and 2006/7 to assess changing patterns of fish consumption and their implications for food and nutrition security. This analysis indicates that growth of aquaculture has been positive, mitigating a sharp reduction in the quantity of fish consumed from capture fisheries and smoothing out seasonal variability in consumption. However, increased availability of fish from aquaculture may not have fully compensated for the loss of fish from capture fisheries in terms of dietary diversity, micronutrient intakes and food and nutrition security, particularly for the poorest consumers. A range of approaches are recommended to sustain and enhance the contributions capture fisheries and aquaculture make to food and nutrition security in Bangladesh

Subfields: Aquatic Science, Nutrition and Dietetics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e56d8bc25a88444512d9fb3c4d315a625efbd677

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Aquatic Science

1. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted
2. B. Belton
3. I. Cowx

In Nutrition and Dietetics

1. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted
2. B. Belton
3. E. Allison
4. Lire Ersado

Citations in the corpus

• Fisheries in transition: Food and nutrition security implications for the global South (2014, background): “…poorest are most heavily dependent on small fish from capture fisheries and consumption of other animal-source and nutrientrich foods is infrequent and limited, a transition in fish supply from capture fisheries to aquaculture might have significant implications for nutrition (Belton et al., 2013).”
• Improving diets with wild and cultivated biodiversity from across the landscape (2015, background): “Concomitantly, pressures on inland and marine fisheries have led to a decreased intake of wild fish and reduced diversity of species consumed (Belton et al. 2014).”
• Inland capture fishery contributions to global food security and threats to their future (2014, background): “…with other fish species may not provide the same nutrients (since different fish provide different nutrients and in different quantities) and may not be as accessible to the populations that depended on the original inland fish species (either due to price or availability) (Belton et al., 2014).”
• Is Aquaculture Pro-Poor? Empirical Evidence of Impacts on Fish Consumption in Bangladesh (2014, unknown): “…fish originating primarily from either aquaculture, inland capture fisheries, or marine/estuarine capture fisheries 2 (Ali, Haque, & Belton, 2012; Belton et al., 2011, 2014; DOF, 2013; Hossain, Belton, & Thilsted, 2013; Mome, 2007; Rahman, Quddus, Pokrant, & Ali, 2006; Thompson et al., 2002).”
• Sustaining healthy diets: The role of capture fisheries and aquaculture for improving nutrition in the post-2015 era (2016, background): “However, the price of indigenous small fish from capture systems, which are more nutrient-rich and more likely to be consumed by the poor, has risen sharply (Belton et al., 2014; Toufique and Belton, 2014).”