Crabs Bringing Success to Coastal Farmers

Building resilience of climate vulnerable farmers in Bangladesh through learning and applying new knowledge in aquaculture

Towards a Solution

The IFAD-financed Promoting Agricultural Commercialization and Enterprises (PACE) project focuses on promoting microenterprises through its three interrelated components: 1) Financial Services for Microenterprises, 2) Value Chain Development, and 3) Technology and Product Adaptation. To increase household incomes, PACE engaged in knowledge exchange and technology transfer to learn from entities in other countries in the region to solve specific problems in economic sub-sectors. The project aligns with SDGs 1 and 2, and contributes to priority areas 2 and 6 of the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPOA).

To address the challenges outlined, the PACE project introduced the first-ever crab hatchery in Bangladesh in the coastal Satkhira district. IFAD's longstanding national partner and the implementer of the PACE project, the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) – a Bangladeshi apex development organization – collaborated with the Centre for Education and Community Development (CECD), a Vietnamese development organization to transfer hatchery technology. Overseas study tours were organized to Viet Nam to learn best practices, production technologies, and management practices related to microenterprise and value chain development around the crab hatchery. This included technical support of Vietnamese experts to expand the export-oriented crab culture sub-sector.

The PACE project aims to expand crab-farming enterprises in the coastal regions of Bangladesh by increasing the availability of crablets and improving the productivity of crab-fattening activities in the regions to increase incomes, provide sustainable employment opportunities and create new entrepreneurs in crab management. Coastal farmers embraced the new technology as they were supported with comprehensive microenterprise finance and non-financial services (training and technical advice) using the value chain development methodology.

The project has used 120 demonstration farms to encourage farmers in the district to adopt modern techniques of crab culture, such as crab fattening, grow-out, crablet nursing, crab farming using boxes, and vertical crab farming that help improve profitability. Furthermore, the project established market linkages to domestic and overseas markets and established an Information Centre to provide need-based technical market-related information to beneficiaries. PACE is implementing nine Value Chains on crab, of which two are focused on establishing crab hatcheries, and the remaining seven focus on crab culture activities. All these VC sub-projects have incorporated 35,000 project members, working in 19 climate-vulnerable sub-districts of six districts of southern coastal areas of Bangladesh. Established in 2016, the model crab hatchery started with a production of 5,000 crablets per annum but increased production to 250,000 crablets in 2021.

Among the 35,000 direct beneficiaries of the sub-project, 38 percent are women. Through the application of innovative techniques, farmers were able to increase crab production by up to 40 per cent over previous practices and build a profitable business. A good example of an improved outcome is the improved health management of crabs, achieved through adequate feeding informed by stocking rates. Another innovation is the introduction of plastic crates to enable the cultivation of soft-shell crabs, which fetch a higher price on the market.

Following the model crab hatchery, PACE has supported three other crab hatcheries at the entrepreneurial level. PKSF is also replicating the good practice beyond PACE and establishing small/mini crab hatcheries at the household level to ensure farmers' continued supply of crablets. One way in which the project ensures the replicability of these interventions is the use of locally sourced materials where the recommended materials are unavailable. An example is the use of locally produced bamboo fences instead of more expensive nets that are required to contain crabs.

The crab hatchery is an innovation, the first of its kind in Bangladesh. It aims to bring a change in the conventional practice of collecting crablets from natural sources. It improves Bangladesh’s competitive advantage in the production of high-quality mud crabs, which are sought in the Asian regional market. The practice of crab fattening is also more sustainable and resilient to variance in climatic conditions in comparison to shrimp cultivation due to the physiology of crabs, which makes them hardier.