This chapter mainly presents the history of shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh and impacts of shrimp farming on rural livelihoods with particular focus on income and dietary consumption, based on literature reviews and structured field surveys. The chapter also focuses on the complexities of land use patterns and recommends a holistic approach to adopt integrated zoning principles into national policies to sustain shrimp farming in Bangladesh.

With current and anticipated increases in magnitude of extreme weather events and a declining consistency in weather patterns, particularly challenging for agriculture, there has been a growing interest in weather index-based insurance (IBI) schemes in Bangladesh. A number of weather index-based insurance products have already been tested and applied across Asia and Africa, with varying degrees of success, as a mechanism to improve livelihood security by enabling vulnerable populations to transfer risk associated with climate change, extreme weather events and other hazards.

The CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) is pursuing a Research in Development approach that emphasizes the importance of embedding research in the development context. Reflecting this emphasis the six elements of this approach are a commitment to people and place, participatory action research, gender transformative research, learning and networking, partnerships, and capacity building. It is through the careful pursuit of these six elements that we believe that the program will achieve the development outcomes we aspire to, and do so at scale.

Tilapia farming has great potential in Bangladesh. Tilapia promises to become a primary cultured species for freshwater and brackish water ecosystems, and therefore may also be a major source of employment. Bangladesh could become one of the leading Asian countries for tilapia seed production and grow-out farming. This article looks at the current status of Tilapia farming and seed production in Bangladesh.

Econometric techniques were used to estimate a production function for tilapia pond culture in El-Fayum Governorate, Egypt, utilizing cross-sectional field data. Explanatory variables were feed, initial stocking weight, and pond size. The function was used to examine returns to scale, estimate the productivity of feed and initial stocking weight, and estimate the profit maximizing demand equations for feed and fingerlings. Diminishing returns to scale seem to exist for tilapia pond culture.

Two sustainable, low-cost pond polyculture technologies have been developed to culture carps and mola in ponds, and culture carps and mola in ponds connected to rice fields. These technologies can increase total fish production from ponds. Farmers depend on carps as an income source, and mola is rich in micronutrients that can help to meet the nutritional requirements of the rural poor, particularly women and young children.

Throughout Bangladesh, there are more than 4.2 million household ponds. Regardless of their size and seasonality, whether they are isolated or connected to rice fields, each of these ponds has the potential to enhance its production with the addition of carps and mola. Mola is a micronutrient-rich small fish that is very popular, and grows well along with carps in ponds and rice fields. Carps are one of the most commonly farmed fish by small-scale farmers in Bangladesh. Carps grow to a large size and are profitable when sold at the market.

Hilsa was once abundantly available in the 100 rivers of Bangladesh. Fishermen used to catch plenty of hilsa which were sold fresh to the local and urban markets. It was a cheap fish and was affordable even to the poor. However, its population has declined significantly over the last 30 years. Such a decline in catches prompted the government of Bangladesh to declare four sites in the country's coastal rivers as hilsa sanctuaries restricting fishing during the breeding season.