Export-Driven, Extensive Coastal Aquaculture Can Benefit Nutritionally Vulnerable People

Abdullah Al Mamun; Francis J. Murray; Matthew Sprague; Bruce J. McAdam; Nanna Roos; Baukje de Roos; Alexandra Pounds; David C. Little

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2021.713140

Export-Driven, Extensive Coastal Aquaculture Can Benefit Nutritionally Vulnerable People

Abdullah Al Mamun^*, Francis J. Murray, Matthew Sprague, Bruce J. McAdam, Nanna Roos, Baukje de Roos, Alexandra Pounds, David C. Little^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

The Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Export-orientated shrimp and prawn farming in coastal ghers has been associated with negative environmental, social, and nutritional impacts. This study challenges these perceptions based on field observations from four communities in South West Bangladesh. Most households observed (>60%) were either directly involved in seafood farming or engaged elsewhere in the seafood value chain. Our study set out to establish how the type and location of aquaculture impacted on access to and consumption of aquatic animals. Additionally, we assessed the effects of both household socioeconomic status and intra-household food allocation on individual diet and nutritional outcomes. We used a blended approach, including a 24-h consumption recall on two occasions, analysis of the proximate composition of aquatic animals and biomarkers from whole blood from a sample of the target population. The diverse polyculture systems generated broad social benefits, where “export-oriented” production actually supplied more food locally than to global markets. Key findings: (1) worse-off households achieved higher productivity of farmed aquatic animals on smaller landholding than better-off households with larger landholdings; (2) vegetable production on gher dikes was a significant source of nutrition and income in lower saline gradients; (3) more fish was eaten in lower saline gradients although fish consumption was highly variable within and between households; (4) intra-household allocation of specific foods within diets were similar across communities; (5) recommended nutrient intakes of protein and zinc exceeded daily requirements for adolescent females, but energy, calcium, and iron were below recommended intake levels; (6) n-3 LC-PUFA, expressed as percentage of total fatty acids, in whole blood samples of adolescent females declined with ambient salinity level regardless of household socioeconomic status; (7) analysis of aquatic animals consumed found that mangrove species and tilapia harvested from higher saline ghers contained high levels of desirable PUFAs. These findings suggest that export-driven, extensive coastal aquaculture can be nutrition sensitive when co-products are retained for local consumption.

Original language	English
Article number	713140
Number of pages	15
Journal	Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Volume	5
Early online date	22 Nov 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.713140
Publication status	Published - 22 Nov 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This piece of research was funded by Commonwealth Scholarship Council, UK and Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade (SEAT) research project funded by EU.

This article is part of the Research Topic Planning for Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems.

Acknowledgements:

The authors would like to thank the fish farmers and participants of the research work from the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh. Additionally, we would like to thank the staff at the Nutritional Analytical Service (NAS), Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK for their kind cooperation and excellent supports. We acknowledge the support of Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK. We also got financial support for the field work from the Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade (SEAT) research project funded by EU. The work was also supported with the Competitive Research Grants to Develop Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions (IMMANA). IMMANA is funded with UK Aid from the UK government.

Data Availability Statement

Data availability:
The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found at: https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/ handle/1893/25012#.YILTzKFDY2w.

Supplementary material:
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs. 2021.713140/full#supplementary-material

Keywords

export and local food
fishery-aquaculture continuum
n-3 fatty acids
nutrition sensitive aquaculture
polyculture

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

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Al Mamun_etal_FSFS_Expert_Driven_Extensive_VoR
Copyright © 2021 Mamun, Murray, Sprague, McAdam, Roos, de Roos, Pounds and Little. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 1 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Export-orientated shrimp and prawn farming in coastal ghers has been associated with negative environmental, social, and nutritional impacts. This study challenges these perceptions based on field observations from four communities in South West Bangladesh. Most households observed (>60%) were either directly involved in seafood farming or engaged elsewhere in the seafood value chain. Our study set out to establish how the type and location of aquaculture impacted on access to and consumption of aquatic animals. Additionally, we assessed the effects of both household socioeconomic status and intra-household food allocation on individual diet and nutritional outcomes. We used a blended approach, including a 24-h consumption recall on two occasions, analysis of the proximate composition of aquatic animals and biomarkers from whole blood from a sample of the target population. The diverse polyculture systems generated broad social benefits, where “export-oriented” production actually supplied more food locally than to global markets. Key findings: (1) worse-off households achieved higher productivity of farmed aquatic animals on smaller landholding than better-off households with larger landholdings; (2) vegetable production on gher dikes was a significant source of nutrition and income in lower saline gradients; (3) more fish was eaten in lower saline gradients although fish consumption was highly variable within and between households; (4) intra-household allocation of specific foods within diets were similar across communities; (5) recommended nutrient intakes of protein and zinc exceeded daily requirements for adolescent females, but energy, calcium, and iron were below recommended intake levels; (6) n-3 LC-PUFA, expressed as percentage of total fatty acids, in whole blood samples of adolescent females declined with ambient salinity level regardless of household socioeconomic status; (7) analysis of aquatic animals consumed found that mangrove species and tilapia harvested from higher saline ghers contained high levels of desirable PUFAs. These findings suggest that export-driven, extensive coastal aquaculture can be nutrition sensitive when co-products are retained for local consumption.",

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note = "Funding Information: This piece of research was funded by Commonwealth Scholarship Council, UK and Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade (SEAT) research project funded by EU. This article is part of the Research Topic Planning for Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems. Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the fish farmers and participants of the research work from the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh. Additionally, we would like to thank the staff at the Nutritional Analytical Service (NAS), Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK for their kind cooperation and excellent supports. We acknowledge the support of Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK. We also got financial support for the field work from the Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade (SEAT) research project funded by EU. The work was also supported with the Competitive Research Grants to Develop Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions (IMMANA). IMMANA is funded with UK Aid from the UK government. ",

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AU - de Roos, Baukje

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N2 - Export-orientated shrimp and prawn farming in coastal ghers has been associated with negative environmental, social, and nutritional impacts. This study challenges these perceptions based on field observations from four communities in South West Bangladesh. Most households observed (>60%) were either directly involved in seafood farming or engaged elsewhere in the seafood value chain. Our study set out to establish how the type and location of aquaculture impacted on access to and consumption of aquatic animals. Additionally, we assessed the effects of both household socioeconomic status and intra-household food allocation on individual diet and nutritional outcomes. We used a blended approach, including a 24-h consumption recall on two occasions, analysis of the proximate composition of aquatic animals and biomarkers from whole blood from a sample of the target population. The diverse polyculture systems generated broad social benefits, where “export-oriented” production actually supplied more food locally than to global markets. Key findings: (1) worse-off households achieved higher productivity of farmed aquatic animals on smaller landholding than better-off households with larger landholdings; (2) vegetable production on gher dikes was a significant source of nutrition and income in lower saline gradients; (3) more fish was eaten in lower saline gradients although fish consumption was highly variable within and between households; (4) intra-household allocation of specific foods within diets were similar across communities; (5) recommended nutrient intakes of protein and zinc exceeded daily requirements for adolescent females, but energy, calcium, and iron were below recommended intake levels; (6) n-3 LC-PUFA, expressed as percentage of total fatty acids, in whole blood samples of adolescent females declined with ambient salinity level regardless of household socioeconomic status; (7) analysis of aquatic animals consumed found that mangrove species and tilapia harvested from higher saline ghers contained high levels of desirable PUFAs. These findings suggest that export-driven, extensive coastal aquaculture can be nutrition sensitive when co-products are retained for local consumption.

AB - Export-orientated shrimp and prawn farming in coastal ghers has been associated with negative environmental, social, and nutritional impacts. This study challenges these perceptions based on field observations from four communities in South West Bangladesh. Most households observed (>60%) were either directly involved in seafood farming or engaged elsewhere in the seafood value chain. Our study set out to establish how the type and location of aquaculture impacted on access to and consumption of aquatic animals. Additionally, we assessed the effects of both household socioeconomic status and intra-household food allocation on individual diet and nutritional outcomes. We used a blended approach, including a 24-h consumption recall on two occasions, analysis of the proximate composition of aquatic animals and biomarkers from whole blood from a sample of the target population. The diverse polyculture systems generated broad social benefits, where “export-oriented” production actually supplied more food locally than to global markets. Key findings: (1) worse-off households achieved higher productivity of farmed aquatic animals on smaller landholding than better-off households with larger landholdings; (2) vegetable production on gher dikes was a significant source of nutrition and income in lower saline gradients; (3) more fish was eaten in lower saline gradients although fish consumption was highly variable within and between households; (4) intra-household allocation of specific foods within diets were similar across communities; (5) recommended nutrient intakes of protein and zinc exceeded daily requirements for adolescent females, but energy, calcium, and iron were below recommended intake levels; (6) n-3 LC-PUFA, expressed as percentage of total fatty acids, in whole blood samples of adolescent females declined with ambient salinity level regardless of household socioeconomic status; (7) analysis of aquatic animals consumed found that mangrove species and tilapia harvested from higher saline ghers contained high levels of desirable PUFAs. These findings suggest that export-driven, extensive coastal aquaculture can be nutrition sensitive when co-products are retained for local consumption.

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Export-Driven, Extensive Coastal Aquaculture Can Benefit Nutritionally Vulnerable People

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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