Exploring the Farmer-level Resilience of Shrimp Industry: A Study on Southwestern Coastal Region in Bangladesh

Oceans and other water bodies are a crucial source of energy, food, and minerals, therefore human civilization is dependent on them from decade to decade. Bangladesh depends heavily on the coastal and marine environment because it is an ocean-based and riverine nation. The marine and coastal ecosystems give Bangladesh with food, regulation, and other ecosystem services that it needs to survive. In recent years, there has been a renewed focus on achieving sustainable development goals (SDG 14) and the sustainable utilisation of marine resources. Parallel to this goal, shrimp farming in Bangladesh can be deemed as a ‘good source of protein’ that can promote SDG2 (no hunger) and also SDG 14. Bangladesh has reaped short-term economic benefits from shrimp aquaculture for nearly half a century. However, to be competitive in the international market and be a means of export diversification, shrimp industry in Bangladesh needs to go a long way. Recent trends portray that shrimp production as well as export has been declining gradually due to several exogenous shocks. 

On the advent of these exogenous shocks, shrimp industry needs to be able to cope up with the situation and revert back to the original position, if not boost, by being resilient. Resilience is the capacity to perform successfully under normal conditions during non-crisis periods and to regain its pre-crisis stability following any exogenous shock. In the perspective of shrimp-farming industry in Bangladesh, 'resilience strategy' refers to any activity undertaken by stakeholders, especially farmers, that aids in their ability to endure and thrive in the advent of severe exogeneous shocks on their farms. This study aims to explore the sources of farmer-level resilience through dynamic capabilities view (DCV) by collecting data from southwestern coastal region (Khulna, Jashore, Satkhira and Bagerhat) of Bangladesh. Findings of this study might help the shrimp farmers to become resilient to exogenous shocks and thus increasing their productivity and export resulting in economic growth through export diversification. 

• Research Project