Butin reality the economic benefit from shrimp farming has mostly bypassed thecommon people. Instead profit goes to the owners of the means of production andit creates a new class in the society that can be seen as absentee land lordknown as gher owners.
This class make money just investing capital, on the other hand land owners compelled tohand over their land for using as gher against their will most of thetimes. As a result, the number oflandless peoples increased rapidly.1 Ifsomeone tries to keep his land to his own adjacent gher owner penetratesalt water in to the land and make the land corrupt so that he has to rent hisland for shrimp cultivation against his will. The lives of thousands oftraditional farmers and a large section of the farmers lost their land andbecome day laborers who hardly living their lives now.Most of the shrimp farms are cultivated by business man who are non-residentsof the area and who have no social obligations to the area. If someone protestsagainst shrimp cultivation are often subject to torture and violence, and evenkilling.
Small and marginal farmers are not allowed to work in the shrimpfields, as the entrepreneurs are afraid of theft of shrimp. Consequently, theyhave to look for employment somewhere else, often outside the village leavingthe family and resulting in family dislocations.2That’s why local peoples are not any more interested to rent their land forshrimp cultivation. Theconcern raised regarding export-oriented shrimp culture in Bangladesh encompassespolitical, socio-economic and environmental issues. Some of these are: (a)non-resident entrepreneurs having no motivation to practice sustainable shrimpfarming; (b) increased salinity leading to drastic decreases in soil fertility;(c) irreparable damage to traditional economic activities such as cattlegrazing, poultry keeping; (d) damage to household vegetation and communalforests; (e) loss of common propertyrights; (f) increased income erosion and growing income inequality; (g) irreversibledamage to the (Sundarban) mangroves and coastal vegetation; (h) irreparabledamage to flora and fauna and bio-diversity. In this condition, local people want their land back from absenteeentrepreneurs but they are not in a position to fight to get back their land astheir counter part is well equipped with money, muscle and administrativesupport. This conflict of interest leads most of the time to fierce clash andsometimes leaving lives though local people want to get rid off shrimp farming atany cost..
6.2 Crab fattening and itsconsequencesCrab is commonly known as shell fish. Many villagers depend oncrab for their livelihood sources.
In 2013-2014, Bangladesh exported 7707 tof hard-shell live crabs to international markets and earned US$ 21.1 million,as compared to US$ 6.7 million in 2010-2011. Crab is mainly collected from the river and cultivated in aspecial process in salt water to make them as fat. brackish water in pond and shrimpghers are used for crab fattening. Traditional method with no scientificinput of crab fattening in earthen pond started since 1993. Technologies ofupgrading traditional method of earthen pond culture and cage culture of mudcrab have been developed during the year 2003-2004. In this method crabs becomesellable in size by 15 to 20 days in brackish water which ultimately increasesthe salinity in coastal areas of Bangladesh.
3 Crab fattening requires capital though the amount is relativelysmall but there are many people those who have no capital to invest crabfattening. Even the Crab cultivators of coastal areas don’t want their son tosee as them in the same profession and opined that they are doing crab fatteningas there was no other alternative. Crab fattening isstill practiced but the scope is not as wider as shrimp cultivation was. Inaddition to that crab fattening due to lack of proper and enough scientificintervention and administrative support has failed to emerge as a potentialalternative livelihood to paddy farming. Gap between the demand and supply,production cost and selling rate, intervention of middlemen and lack of capitalstill found as major hindrance to this livelihood skill. 6.3 Mussel, clam and oyster gathering To gather mussel,clam and oyster they prepare clutch by using locally available selectedmaterials such as plastic sheet, pottery, kortal and bamboo pole . Mollusk’s culture in thecoastal water is not capital intensive and can involve poor communities.
Countrieslike Thailand, Vietnam and China have an increased demand for molluscs and thegap between supply and demand is so high. Oyster, clam and molluscs gatheringactivities are done mainly by women and children and they are from veryimpoverished section of the society. Theyjust live hand to mouth by gathering oyster, clam and mollusk and it is verydifficult to maintain their family by such a small amount of earnings.
But after more than two decades localpeople are very eager to return to paddy cultivation as no other livelihood isas secure as paddy production. Now they are crying to return to their forefather’sprofession by which they could produce food directly for their children but itis not as easy as wish. 4Oyster, clam and mollusks gathering is not yet flourished fully as analternative livelihood but informants view it as ‘something is better thannothing’. Women engaged this livelihoodis not earning enough money to live but it helps them to keep going theirstruggle for existence1 Sohela Mustari And Zehadul Kari A. “Impact Of Salinity On The Socio-Environmental Life Ofcoastal People Of Bangladesh.
” Asian Journal Of Social Sciences &Humanities Vol. 3(1) February (2014): 212 Monirul ,SusannahSallu .”Vulnerability Of Fishery-BasedLivelihoods To The Impacts Of Climate Variability And Change: Insights FromCoastal Bangladesh” (2015): 33 3Rahman. “Salt Is Killing Us,” (2009):55-56.
4 Maruf Minar Hossain, And Bilal Hossain. “Climate Change And CoastalZone Of Bamgladesh: Vulnirability, Resilience And Adaptability.” Middle-East JournalOf Scientific Research 13, No. 1 (January2013): 22.
