Change and Diversity in Smallholder Rice-Fish Systems : Recent Evidence from Bangladesh

Efforts to unlock the genetic potential of both rice and fish, when combined with efforts to improve the management of rice-fish systems, have considerable proven potential for increasing agricultural productivity and food security. In Bangladesh, estimates suggest that the country’s potential rice-fish production system encompasses between two and three million hectares of land. Despite three decades of research on biophysical and technical aspects of rice-fish systems, this potential has not been realized fully due to insufficient attention given to the social, economic, and policy dimensions of system improvement. This paper provides a characterization of the diverse and changing nature of rice-fish systems in Bangladesh by combining data from a novel upazilla-level (sub-district-level) survey of fishery officers with household surveys, focus group discussions, and a meta-review of the literature on aquaculture in the country. The resulting analysis sheds new light on the economic viability of different rice-fish systems and recommends policy and investment options to further improve the development and delivery of rice-fish technologies. Findings indicate that in addition to concurrent rice-fish systems, alternating rice-fish systems and collectively managed systems offer considerable potential for increasing productivity and farm incomes in Bangladesh. Findings also suggest that although the emergent innovation system around these rice-fish systems is fairly dynamic, there is a need for more supportive policies and investments — and analysis of the intended and unintended impacts of these policies and investments