BANGLADESH

Adoption of Commercial Vegetable and Polyculture Fish Production: Impacts on Income, Household Resource Allocation, and Nutrition

A High Concentration Country Study

The purpose of the study is to analyze the effects on micronutrient nutrition of the adoption of two specific agricultural technologies in Bangladesh: (i) commercial vegetable in one site (Saturia thana, Manikganj district) and (ii) polyculture fish production in two sites (Jessore Sadar thana, Jessore district, and Gaffargaon thana, Mymensingh district and Pakundia and Kishoreganj Sadar thanas, Kishoreganj district), in combination with specific extension programs for disseminating these technologies. Agricultural technologies and extension programs at each site are unique, resulting in three case studies which may be compared. Characteristic of all three places is the dissemination of technologies through NGO-led credit and training programs which target poor women.

The basic methodology for evaluating the nutrition and household resource allocation effects of the technology adoption in each study site involves three steps: (i) selection of three groups of households -- adopting households ( NGO members), comparable non-adopting households with similar resource bases and other characteristics ( also NGO members), and a cross-section of all other non-adopting households representative of the general population in the villages under study; (ii) for all households included in the sample, collection of detailed information on production and other income earning activities by individual family member, expenditure on food, health, and other items, food and nutrient intakes as well as health and nutritional status by individual family member, and time allocation patterns of adults; (iii) these data, complemented by community and group-level information allow analysis of the linkages, for each of the three household groups, between agricultural production and micronutrient status.

The project aims at answering two broad categories of policy issues. The first is whether the provision of training and credit to women improves their status, decision-making power and their as well as their children's welfare. The second broad set of questions is whether the production of micro-nutrient-rich foods -- the vegetables and the fish -- improves the micro-nutrient status of family members of producing households and through which pathways.

Main Research Team

Howarth Bouis
Bénédicte de la Brière
Agnes Quisumbing
Sajjad Zohir (BIDS)
Nazmul Hassan (Institute for Nutrition and Food Studies, Univ. of Dhaka)
Ruchira Tabassum Naved (Save the Children and the Population Council)