TY - JOUR

T1 - The role of homestead fish ponds for household nutrition security in Bangladesh

AU - Ahmed, Badrun Nessa

AU - Waibel, Hermann

N1 - Funding Information: We thank the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany for providing the financial support for this study under the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) project from 2014 to 2017. We would also like to specially thank Dr. Michael Phillips (Director, Aquaculture and Fisheries Science), Dr. Sven Genschick (Postdoc Fellow) from WorldFish Centre, Penang, Malaysia and Dr. Priyanka Parvathi (Postdoc Fellow) from the Institute of Development and Agricultural Economics, Hannover, Germany for their constructive comments on an earlier draft. We also thank Dr. K. A. Sayeed Murshid (Director General), Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Dhaka, Bangladesh for logistic support during the survey. Special thanks to all enumerators who helped us collect the data for the household survey.

PY - 2019/8/15

Y1 - 2019/8/15

N2 - This paper examines whether income from homestead aquaculture contributes to household nutritional outcomes in developing countries. We used data from 518 homestead aquaculture producers in Bangladesh. We applied a two-stage least squares (2SLS) as well as a three-stage least squares (3SLS) model in a simultaneous equations framework to estimate the effects of aquaculture income on household food consumption and dietary diversity. Homestead aquaculture increased household food consumption and improved dietary diversity by generating additional cash income and stimulating higher fish consumption from home production. Moreover, income from aquaculture helped poor farmers to improve the quality of householder diets by purchasing more calories from the market associated with protein rich and energy-dense food items. Our results have important policy implications for countries with low dietary diversity such as Bangladesh. As Governments tend to undervalue home production by the poor, we emphasize that homestead fish production remains important for many low-income households. Therefore, the Department of Fisheries in Bangladesh should reconsider its view on the role of homestead pond production and give it more recognition in its extension activities.

AB - This paper examines whether income from homestead aquaculture contributes to household nutritional outcomes in developing countries. We used data from 518 homestead aquaculture producers in Bangladesh. We applied a two-stage least squares (2SLS) as well as a three-stage least squares (3SLS) model in a simultaneous equations framework to estimate the effects of aquaculture income on household food consumption and dietary diversity. Homestead aquaculture increased household food consumption and improved dietary diversity by generating additional cash income and stimulating higher fish consumption from home production. Moreover, income from aquaculture helped poor farmers to improve the quality of householder diets by purchasing more calories from the market associated with protein rich and energy-dense food items. Our results have important policy implications for countries with low dietary diversity such as Bangladesh. As Governments tend to undervalue home production by the poor, we emphasize that homestead fish production remains important for many low-income households. Therefore, the Department of Fisheries in Bangladesh should reconsider its view on the role of homestead pond production and give it more recognition in its extension activities.

KW - Agriculture household model

KW - Aquaculture

KW - Developing country

KW - Nutrition security

KW - Simultaneous equations model

KW - Two stages least squares

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85069901590&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s12571-019-00947-6

DO - 10.1007/s12571-019-00947-6

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85069901590

VL - 11

SP - 835

EP - 854

JO - Food Security

JF - Food Security

SN - 1876-4517

IS - 4

ER -