LIVELIHOOD STATUS OF FRESH FISH, DRY FISH AND VEGETABLE RETAILERS AT RAJOIR UPAZILA OF MADARIPUR DISTRICT, BANGLADESH

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1 BANGLADESH RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS JOURNAL ISSN: , Volume: 5, Issue: 3, Page: , May -June, 2011 LIVELIHOOD STATUS OF FRESH FISH, DRY FISH AND VEGETABLE RETAILERS AT RAJOIR UPAZILA OF MADARIPUR DISTRICT, BANGLADESH Palash Halder 1, Hazrat Ali* 2, Nipa Gupta 2, Md Saifullah Bin Aziz 3 and Md Shirajum Monir 4 Palash Halder, Hazrat Ali, Nipa Gupta, Md Saifullah Bin Aziz and Md Shirajum Monir (2011). Livelihood Status of Fresh Fish, Dry Fish and Vegetable Retailers at Rajoir Upazila of Madaripur District, Bangladesh. Bangladesh Res. Pub. J. 5(3): Retrieve from Abstract This study was conducted in rajoir upazila under Madaripur district to determine livelihood status and business vulnerability of fresh fish, dry fish and vegetable retailers for a period of six month (January to June, 2010). The multiple methodological Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools like questionnaire interview mainly (n=72), focus group discussion (n=6) and key informant interview (n=9) were used to collect information. Most of the retailers (54.17%) belong to the age group 31 to 40 years and in average 76.39% lived with nuclear family. About 48.61% of the respondents had 4 to 5 family members while 45.83% had small family (2 to 3 members) and the education level of the retailer was very poor where 52.78% had no formal education. About 80.56% of the respondent used own tube-well water for drinking purposes while 66.67% of the retailers have tinshed building and 72.22%of the respondents used semi-concrete sanitary, 22.22% used concrete while only 5.56% used wooden sanitary. In average 44.44% of the retailers received health service from village doctor while 31.94%, 11.11% and 12.5% received from upazila health complex, district hospital and MBBS, respectively. All respondents took this business as main occupation while 47.22% of the retailers have no alternative income sources. The annual income of majority respondents was above BDT 75,000 and most of the retailers (72.22%) did not take loan from external source for the business purposes. Though the retailing business was vulnerable however, most of the respondents have improved their socioeconomic condition through this business and external support necessary to reduce vulnerability of this business. Key Words: Socioeconomic status, retailer, vulnerability, outcome. Introduction The people of Bangladesh mainly depends agriculture for their livelihood. Fisheries and/or aquaculture are most important sub-sectors of agriculture and the total production was 2701,370 tonnes in the year [Department of Fisheries (DoF), 2010]. Most of the produces (97.30%) are consumed in domestic market in fresh or dried condition [Department of Fisheries (DoF), 2010]. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) (2006) reported that vegetables occupy 16% of the total cultivated land area of Bangladesh however; it is extremely difficult to Corresponding Author s ali_03ku@yahoo.com 1 Upazila Fisheries Officer, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Bangladesh 2 Department of Aquaculture, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh Department of Fisheries Technology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute, Freshwater Sub-station, Saidpur, Nilphamary

2 Livelihood status of retailers estimate accurately the total production in the country. An efficient marketing system is essential for proper distribution of these produces from grower to the consumer. The marketing of the produces provide livelihood opportunities for large number of intermediaries and among them, retailers are the largest group who distributed these produces to local consumers. According to Chambers and Conway (1992), livelihood comprises the capabilities, the assets (i.e. natural, physical, human, financial and social capital), the activities and the accesses to these that together determine the living gained by the individual household. This author also defined that livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in future. The sustainable livelihoods framework described attention to five types of capital upon which farmer s livelihoods depends: human, natural, financial, physical and social (Scoones, 1998). The approach basically based on the fundamental principle analysis of capital assets in the context of the external environment. For sustainable rural development and poverty elimination, different approaches had been adopted and the sustainable livelihood approach has been gradually expanded with its own core and principles for poverty focused development activities (DFID, 1998). A sustainable livelihood is a way of thinking about the objectives, scope and priorities for development, in order to enhance progress in poverty elimination (Scones, 1998). The social content is especially important particularly access arrangement and assessments of benefits to livelihood (Azucena et al., 2001). Considering the financial hardship and other complexities of the fish and vegetable retailers, it is necessary to assess their livelihood status. Based on the above fact, this study was carried out to assess livelihood status and business vulnerability of fresh fish, dried fish and vegetable retailers. Materials and methods The present study was conducted to assess livelihood status and business vulnerability of fresh fish, dried fish and vegetable retailers in rajor upazila under Madaripur district of Bangladesh during the period from January to June, Three markets such as Kadambari, Takerhat and Amgram bazar were selected to survey for getting required information. From each market 8 fresh fish, 8 dry fish and 8 vegetable, a total 72 retailers were surveyed (fresh fish-24, dried fish-24 and vegetable-24). The information was collected based on the structured questionnaire survey and additionally key informant interview and focus group discussion was also done to validate the survey results. Draft questionnaires were tested twice with retailers in the study area prior to preparing the final questionnaires. During the testing period, attention was given to any new information and questionnaires were modified based on the feedback before being finalized. Nine key informant interview and six focus group discussion was done in the study area to obtain qualitative results which help to clarify survey results. All the collected information were accumulated and analyzed by MS-Excel and then presented in textual, tabular and graphical forms to assess livelihood status of fresh fish, dry fish and vegetable retailers in the study area. Results and discussion Livelihood status of the fish farmer: A total of 72 people were interviewed from 3 market of rajoir upazilla, a wide range indicators were collected in various aspects of livelihood characteristics of the retailers. A detailed analysis were made on the following parameters and presented in this section. 263

3 Halder et. al. Age distribution: The retailer was classified into four major groups such as 20-30, 31-40, and above 50 and it was found that most of the retailers (54.17%) belong to young age, 31 to 40 years group (Table 1). A similar result also reported for pond farmers in Mymensingh district (Ali et al., 2009). Khayruzzaman (2007) also found that 48% fish retailers were age groups in Jamalpur district. However, Haque (2006) reported that 50% wholesaler, 53% auctioneer (arotder) and 40% retailers were the similar age group in Mymensingh local fish market. Table 1. Age distribution of the retailers in the study area Age groups (year) Fresh fish Dry fish Vegetable Total 20 to (6) (5) (4) (15) 31 to (12) (13) (14) (39) 41 to (5) (4) (4) (13) Above (1) 8.33 (2) 8.33 (2) 6.94 (5) Marital status and family size: In the present survey, it was found that the married retailers of fresh fish, dry fish and vegetable were 83.33%, 79.17% and 87.5%, respectively. The family size of the retailers divided into three major groups based on the number of family member (Figure 1). About 48.61% of the retailers had 4 to 5 family members and 45.83% had small family with 2 to 3 members. This result indicated that they were aware of the family planning procedure that s why most of respondents had relative small family size. The finding of the present study was more or less similar to the finding of Ali et al. (2009). 264 Figure 1: Family size of the fish and vegetable retailers in the study area Family status: It was found that most of the retailers (76.39%) lived with nuclear family and 23.61% respondent live with joint family (Table 2). A similar result also described by Alam et al. (2009) for poor fishermen around the basantapur beel of Natore district. The highest number of retailers with nuclear family structure was found in fresh fish (83.3%) compared to dry fish (79.2%) and vegetable retailer (76.39%).

4 Livelihood status of retailers Table 2: Family status of the fish and vegetable retailers in the study area Family status Fresh fish Dry fish Vegetable Total Nuclear family 83.3 (20) 79.2 (19) 70.8 (17) (55) Joint family 16.7 (4) 20.8 (5) 29.2 (7) (17) Religious status: From the present survey, it was found that most of the respondents were Muslim (83.33%) and 16.67% were Hindu (Figure 2). Figure 2 indicated that fresh fish retailers were more Hindu (33.3%) compared to dry fish (12.5%) and vegetable retailers (4.2%). Ali et al. (2009) reported that 85% pond farmers were Muslim and 15% farmers were Hindu in Mymensingh district. 265 Figure 2: Religious status of the fish and vegetable retailers in the study area Educational status: Education plays an important role in up-lifting the social status of the retailers. It was revealed that, out of 72 retailers, 16.67% were illiterate and 36.11% can sign only while 29.17% were upto primary and 13.89% retailers completed their secondary school certificate (SSC) (Table 3). It was found that comparatively dry fish retailers were educationally developed in the study areas. Haque (2006) reported that 48% fish retailers can only sign and 32% were upto SSC in Mymensingh district. The literacy level of the present retailer was lower compared to pond farmer in Mymensingh district (Ali et al., 2009). Table 3: Educational status of the retailers in the study area Educational status Fresh fish Dry fish Vegetable Total Illiterate 20.8 (5) 4.17 (1) 25.0 (6) (12) Can sign only 41.7 (10) 16.7 (4) 50.0 (12) (26) Primary 25 (6) 45.8 (11) 16.7 (4) (21) SSC 8.33 (2) 29.2 (7) 4.17 (1) (10) HSC 4.17 (1) 4.17 (1) 4.17 (1) 4.17 (3) Above HSC 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) Housing condition: Most of the retailers (66.67%) had tinshed building compared to semi-concrete (18.06%), concrete (8.33%) and wooden building (6.94%) (Table 4). It was revealed that the housing condition of the dry fish retailer was better followed by fresh fish and vegetable retailers. Fifty percent fish farmer in Mymensingh district had tinshed, 23% had katcha, 23% had semi-pucca and only

5 Halder et. al. 4% had pucca building (Ali et al., 2009) which was more or less similar to the finding of present study. Table 4: Housing condition of the retailers in the study area Housing condition Fresh fish Dry fish Vegetable Total Earthen/wooden 8.33 (2) 0 (0) 12.5 (3) 6.94 (5) Tinshed 66.7 (16) 70.8 (17) 62.5 (15) (48) Semi-concrete 20.8 (5) 16.7 (4) 16.7 (4) (13) Concrete 4.17 (1) 12.5 (3) 8.33 (2) 8.33 (6) Health facilities: When the retailers face health problem, then initially 45.83% of fresh fish, 37.5% of dry fish and 50% of vegetable retailers go to the village doctor (Figure 3). Ali et al. (2009) reported that 40% of fish farmer in Mymensingh district depend village doctor or kobiraj for health problem. If the health problem is severe then the respondents of the present study go to the upazila health complex, district hospital or MBBS doctor. This result was similar to the finding of Ali et al. (2009). 266 Figure 3: Health facilities of the retailers in the study area Sanitary facilities: It was observed that most of the retailers (72.22%) had semiconcrete sanitary facilities (Table 5). Ali et al. (2009) reported that 62.5% fish farmer has access of semi-pucca sanitary facilities in Mymensingh district. The retailers had higher access to good sanitation in dry fish retailer compared to fresh fish and vegetable retailers (20.83%). The sanitary conditions were very poor of the farmers in Rajshahi district (Zaman et al., 2006) and they suffered from diarrhea and cholera due to lack of good sanitary facilities (Ali et al., 2008). Table 5: Sanitary facilities of the retailers in the study area Sanitary facilities Fresh fish Dry fish Vegetable Total Earthen/wooden 8.33 (2) 4.17 (1) 4.17 (1) 5.56 (4) Semi-concrete (17) 62.5 (17) 75 (18) (52) Concrete (5) 25 (6) (5) (16) Drinking water facilities: From the present survey, it was found that most of the respondents (80.56%) were used their own tube-well and 19.44% of the retailer was used neighbor or public tube-well for collecting drinking water (Table 6). This

6 Livelihood status of retailers scenario of drinking water is very common in Bangladesh (Ali et al., 2009; Ali et al., 2008; Zaman et al., 2006). Table 6. Drinking water facilities of the retailers in the study area Drinking water facilities Fresh fish Dry fish Vegetable Total Own tube-well (19) (20) (19) (58) Public tubewell (5) (4) (5) (14) Electricity facilities: The electricity facilities of fresh fish, dry fish and vegetable retailers were 70.83%, 79.17% and 87.5%, respectively (Table 7). This facility of the household depends on multiple factors and position of homestead. Ali et al. (2009) reported that 95% farmer had electricity facilities in Mymensingh district but 62% farmers had the access of electricity in Rajshahi district (Ali et al., 2008). Table 7: Electricity facilities of the retailers in the study area Electricity facilities Fresh fish Dry fish Vegetable Total Yes (17) (19) 87.5 (21) (57) No (7) (5) 12.5 (3) (15) Access of land area: From the present survey, it was observed that most of the retailers were poor but they have own homestead. Eighty two percent of the respondents had less than 31 decimal own land including homestead (Table 8). Ali et al. (2011) reported that the mean landholding of pangasius farm owner in Mymensingh area was 1.63 ha. The landholding of the retailers in the study area was minimal compared to nationally rural landholding sized (Hossain and Bayes 2009). Table 8: Amount of own land of the retailers in the study area Own land (dec) Fresh fish Dry fish Vegetable Total (11) (8) (7) (26) 21 to (10) 50.0 (12) (11) (33) 31 to (2) 12.5 (3) (4) 12.5 (9) (1) 4.17 (1) 8.33 (2) 5.56 (4) Occupation: The main occupation of the retailer was considered from which most of the household income was earned. It was revealed that retailing is main occupation for all categories retailer and most of the respondents (47.22%) had no secondary occupation (Figure 4). Ali and Haque (2010) found that 13.3% farmer had no secondary occupation and pangasius farming is the main source of their household income. Agriculture is the secondary occupation of 62.5% of the vegetable retailer; on the other hand, catching fish from natural waterbodies is the secondary occupation of the fresh fish (20.83%) and dry fish retailers (25%). This finding was more or less similar to the finding of Ali et al. (2009) for fish farmer in Mymensingh district. 267

7 Halder et. al. 268 Figure 4: Secondary occupation of the retailers in the study area Annual household income: The annual household income of the surveyed retailers was classified into five categories (Table 9) and it was found that most of the respondents (48.61%) household income varied from BDT 75,000 to 100,000. The annual income was higher in vegetable retailers compared to fresh and dry fish retailers. This study proved that the annual household income of retailers was better than national average income at BDT 22,000 [Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 2002]. However, the average annual household income of the fish farmer in Mymensingh was BDT 42,000 (Ali et al., 2009; Alam et al., 2009). Table 9: Annual household income of the retailers in the study area Annual income (BDT) Fresh fish Dry fish Vegetable Total <25,000 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 25,000-50, (4) 12.5 (3) 8.33 (2) 12.5 (9) 50,000-75, (6) (8) 25.0 (6) (20) 75, , (12) (10) (13) (35) > (2) 12.5 (3) 12.5 (3) (8) Credit facilities: Most of the respondents (72.22%) of the present survey used their own money for the business and remaining retailers took loan from bank and local NGOs (Table 10). Ali et al. (2009) reported a similar trend for the fish farmer in Mymensingh district. This author also described that it is easy to get micro-credit from local NGOs though interest rate is higher compared to bank and this concept justified the findings of the present study. Table 10: Credit facilities of the retailers in the study area Credit facilities Fresh fish Dry fish Vegetable Total Not taking 75.0 (18) 62.5 (15) (19) (52) loan Bank 4.17 (1) 4.17 (1) 8.33 (2) 5.56 (4) NGOs (5) (8) 12.5 (3) (16) Vulnerability of the business The vulnerability of this business depends on price variation of fishes and vegetables. The price depends on demand and supply of the product. The mean

8 Livelihood status of retailers seasonal price of fresh fish, dry fish and vegetable was varied from 8.16 to 15.97%, 7.21 to 10.97% and to 22.02% in the lean and peak season, respectively. It was noted that the peak season of the product was high risk or vulnerable for this business. The price variation of vegetable was higher compared to fresh and dry fish in peak and lean season indicating vegetable retailing is more vulnerable than fresh and dry fish business. As some vegetables were not remain in good condition for long period and the quality deteriorated within two to three days. Fresh fish remain good for a certain period if it stored proper methods but the storing material was not available in local area. On the other hand, dry fish remain good for long time for consumption and the qualities are not deteriorated within short time that s why the price variation was not so high like vegetable in peak and lean seasons. Livelihood outcomes and improved socio-economic status Livelihood outcomes can be thought of as the inverse of poverty. Contributing to the eradication of poverty and food insecurity depends on equitable access to resources, access of disadvantaged groups to sufficient, safe and nutritionally adequate food, (Scoones, 1998). Inspite of poor resources livelihood outcomes of retailing business are positive and most of them increased their income, food security and basic needs. The survey suggested that 94.44% of retailers have improved their socioeconomic condition through this business. Now they have better food, cloths, housing conditions and children education. As an impact of this business saving, investment and purchasing capacity have increased and unemployment problem was decreased for rural poor people. Conclusion The retailing business plays a vital role in the uplifting of the socioeconomic condition of the people in the study area and it is employment opportunities for the large number of rural poor population. Though respondents have improved their socioeconomic condition but this business is very vulnerable. The present study suggested that alternatives and diversified livelihood is needed to improve the present situation. Moreover, the retailers face some problem of their retailing such as selected place and other facilities. It also suggested that government, NGOs, research organizations, local authority and law enforcing agencies should cooperate together to formulate an integrated policy to overcome problem. References Alam, M.S., Flowra, F.A., Salam, M.A., Kabir, A.K.M.A. and Ali, H. (2009). Fishing gears, Fish marketing and livelihood status of the poor fishermen around the basantapur beel at Lalpur upazila. J. Agrofor. Environ. 3(1): Alam, M.S., Salam, M.A., Sarker, I.C., Ali, H. and Mollah, M.O.U. (2009). Water loading for live fish transportation and socio-economic status of water loading station owners in three upazillas of Mymensingh district. J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 2(1): Ali H. and Haque, M.M. (2010). Impacts of pangasius auaculture on land use pattern in a selected area of Mymensingh district, Bangladesh. J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 7 (1): Ali, H., Azad, M.A.K., Anisuzzaman, M., Chowdhury, M.M.R., Hoque, M. and M.I. Shariful (2009). Livelihood status of the fish farmers in some selected areas of Tarakanda upazila of Mymensingh district. J. Agrofor. Environ. 3(2): Ali, H., Haque, M.M. and Belton, B. (2011). Pangasius aquaculture in Bangladesh: an overview. Aquaculture research. (Submitted). 269

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