Shrimp farming plays a vital role in the economic uplift of coastal populations in Bangladesh

The dataset collected farmers’ opinions based on seven factors from the TPB-NAM integration model.In particular, TPB has been accepted and widely used in studies with the purpose of predicting individual intentions and behavior, empirical studies have shown the relevance of this theory in the study of farmers’ intentions/behavior.NAM is derived from a pro-social context and has been widely used in many studies to explain not only pro-social intentions/behavior but also pro-environmental intentions/behavior in a wide range of contexts.The data set was collected through a 2-part survey: the first part explores the respondents’ characteristics including: gender, age, educational qualification, farming experience and farming annual income ; the second part explores respondents’ consent to statements related to factors affecting the intention to produce organic agriculture ; Table 3 shows more detailed results between the variables.It took the farmer about 20 minutes to complete the entire survey.The survey was conducted directly at the farmer’s residence or farm in October 2019.The survey team received the support from Department of Science and Technology in Hanoi to list and approach the target farmers.Respondents were farmers who were practicing conventional farming in Hanoi, Vietnam.Respondents were selected at random but still ensured their representativeness in some regions that were promoting the conversion to organic farming such as Soc Son, Chuong My, Ba Vi,…in Hanoi.Each farmer participating in the survey received a support of 2 US dollar after completing all the contents of the questionnaire which were distributed directly and collected by the survey team.The survey team designed a survey of 38 items, of which 5 were about respondents’ characteristics, the remaining 33 items, are designed on a 5-point Likert scale , focus on 7 factors: intention, ebb and flow bench attitude, subject norms, perceived behavioral control, personal norm, awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility.

All items in the survey are inherited from previous studies and the replying is complete mandatory to ensure that the collected data does not contain missing data.The questionnaire did not use the reverse question, which was conducted directly by the survey team, with detailed observations and assisting farmers in the answer process.All responses of the respondents were imported into Excel software before importing to SPSS 22.Before the analysis, the variables were encoded and the data were checked to ensure the validity of each questionnaire.After discarding invalid questionnaires, the final dataset contained 318 questionnaires.Bangladesh is ranked as the fifth-largest aquaculture-producing nation.The shrimp culture contributes 71.4 % to the total national production.The aquaculture industry has shown rapid growth with a critical role in Bangladesh’s economy, becoming the second-largest export industry after garments.It started to grow slowly in a commercial mode of aquaculture in the middle 1970s due to increasing demand in the international market.Shrimp culture mainly practices in Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, and Cox’s Bazar districts of Bangladesh.It is safe to say that shrimp culture in these areas richly supports the sustainability, resilience, and social-economic status of the coastal shrimp farmer communities.The fisheries sector contributed approximately 2.73 % of the total export earnings and 22.21 % to the agricultural industry.Export earnings from the fisheries sector have increased from USD 151,244,659 in 1995–1996 to USD 356,707,522 in 2009–2010 , which is more than double, hence shows a promising potential in this sector to uplift the poor farming communities.The booming shrimp farming industry generated diverse employment opportunities, with the 87,000 persons directly involved in farming activities, while other 5000–6000 families working in the shrimp processing and ancillary industries.The latest estimates illustrate that a large area of saline land is under shrimp cultivation in Bangladesh , making it a reasonable stakeholder in the national economy and bringing profitable usage of the uncultivable land.Currently, shrimp farming and allied industries are the primary income sources for the rural communities of south-western and southeastern coastal areas of Bangladesh.

Among the aquaculture types, shrimp aquaculture has shown rapid growth with a critical role in Bangladesh’s economy.The United Nations Development Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization have reported approximately 2.1 lac hectares of the land went under shrimp farming.Out of which, 93,799 shrimp farms are Bagda , and Golda are cultured in 67,644 farms.Previously, the area under brackish water prawn culture was 128,274 ha, while freshwater prawns culture has grown to 28,411 ha, making 156945 ha.It represents about 80 % of the total area under shrimp cultivation in Bangladesh.Among the essential shrimp species, brackish water shrimp farming is currently one of the most popular concerning the national economy.In Southern Bangladesh, thousands of farmers have transformed their none-profiting paddy fields to ’gher’ to start as a profitable shrimp culture practice.The P.monodon culture in Bangladesh is practiced in the ponds situated alongside a river.This modification entails the construction of higher dikes by excavating a deep enough canal inside, and the periphery of the dikes facilitates entry of the water during the dry season.The commercial shrimp culture began in the 1970s and radically expanded in the ensuing decades.Furthermore, it has taken place mainly on the reclaimed mangrove forest areas in the Sundarban region at Shyamnagar Upazila of Satkhira District.We planned this study to highlight how modern shrimp farming practices could have improved and influenced the livelihood patterns, social-economic status, household structures, and overall living standards of the coastal communities in Southern Bangladesh as they are directly involved in shrimp farming.We expected that the study could provide better insights into promoting sustainable shrimp farming in southwest coastal Bangladesh.The main objectives of our study include the understanding of potential changes in shrimp farming in the southwest coastal Bangladesh.Therefore, we assessed shrimp farming’s major social-economic status indicators, indicating the significant phases and present shrimp farming situation.We also surveyed for income and satisfaction levels among the shrimp farming communities.

The study area map denoting three wards is showing in Fig.1.The study was conducted in three wards of Ishwaripur Union under Shyamnagar Upazila, Satkhira District, located near the Sundarbans in southwest coastal Bangladesh.We randomly selected the survey respondents among the shrimp farmers located in the study area.The total population of the Ishwaripur Union is 45,202 , with 49 % male and 51 % female inhabitants.Muslim community dominates as 74 %, while the rest of them are other religios communities.The literacy rate is reported at 55.04 percent with limited educational institutions.Please see the supplementary material Table 1 for detailed information on educational institutions present in the study area.In Shyamnagar Upazila, a large number of farmers are involved in shrimp farming.The respondents were selected from three different locations, i.e., location 1 , location 2 , and location 3 in Ishwaripur Union under Shyamnagar Upazila of Satkhira, Bangladesh.A total of 50 respondents were interviewed by questionnaire method, and 2 case studies were conducted among the respondents.In these case studies, the sample size was determined by a stratified proportionate sampling method through the total shrimp farming household.The total number of households and sample size in each ward in the study area are shown in supplementary material Table 2.The distribution of frequency and percentage of respondents were categorized based on the land size in their farms is shown in supplementary material Table 3.A questionnaire was designed to survey the social-economic issues due to shrimp farming and its implications on local livelihood.The preliminary survey focused on the shrimp farmers current social-economic status.During this survey, the data were collected by the pre-tested draft questionnaire from the two respondents of each category.Then the questionnaire was finalized for collecting the necessary data through the interview method.The survey method was conducted through direct interviews with the different stakeholders.The information was also collected about the earlier traditional social structure and livelihood status of shrimp farming stakeholders, and we checked they changed or not due to shrimp farming.We also analyzed the intragenerational changes in the sustainability of livelihood framework such as age group, educational status,4x8ft rolling benches alternative occupation, social status, financial capital assets were also analyzed by DFID for determining the impacts of shrimp farming development at the coastal area of Bangladesh and financial capital assets to determine the effects of shrimp farming development in Bangladesh’s coastal region.

The data was collected through direct observation and transect walk toolkit.The primary data were collected through the questionnaire survey group discussion and interview.However, all the data were crosschecked to ensure the accuracy of data collected from the respondents.The Focus Group discussions were conducted to identify the problems and collect fishermen’s recommendations regarding the issues identified to develop an effective solution.We performed the data error analyses, management, standardization, scaling, and other procedures.According to the total response value of open-ended answers, the information was categorized during data processing.The tabulation was performed by using the Statistical Package for Social Science , while Microsoft Excel was used to prepare the illustrations.The leading percentages of shrimp farmers age groups comprised of the middle age, i.e., 36–40 years old and above 40 years.Less than 30 years old farmers made up only 6%, with 31− 35 years old as 18 %.The previous studies have shown that most 16–30 aged displayed the highest involvement in this occupation.The shrimp farmers age distribution provides valuable insights into the decision-making and profitable farming operations ability.It is critical to notice that the younger people displayed no interest in shrimp fishing , which alludes to looming crises if the situation prevails.On the other hand, the respondents educational status was categorized into six categories.The 24 % of the farmers obtained SSC and upper-level education, while 76 % did not enter high school, with 14 % as illiterates.It is alarming to note only 8% of farmers with university level education.Das et al.reported that 75 % of the fishing community was illiterate.However, our study exhibited a different trend believed to be improving due to the uplift of the shrimp farming communities social-economic status.Rahman reported that the fishermen are socially, economically, and educationally disadvantaged and lack sufficient financial resources to invest in education.Karim and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council revealed low or no education as the characteristic feature in rural life in some villages.Owing to higher financial stress, the shrimp farmers relied on alternative occupations to meet their financial demands.This study showed the tendency of alternative careers among the shrimp farmers.We found that people in the study area were involved with diverse professions.Fishing , agriculture , and private businesses remained the most preferred primary sources of income among the shrimp farmers, while personal business was the most preferred secondary source of income.It indicated that a considerable percentage of shrimp farmers relied upon various alternative sources to meet their financial demands.Due to the higher subsistence level, the seasonal and sometimes professional fishers are engaged in multiple earning activities on a part-time basis, especially during the low season for fishing.Many fishers were also involved in agricultural activities.The increasing percentages of executive involvement are noticeable in the study area, a promising sign for the shrimp farming community.The quality of life and living standard depend on the adequacy of living resources, education status, industrial production, and agricultural practices.More or less, electricity is inevitable to maintain sustainable living standards.Our data revealed that 34 % of the farmers have no access to electricity.For the rest of the inhabitants, the primary sources of electricity are the Rural Electrification Board and solar energy , with other sources including battery and oil engine generators.However, compared to the preceding reports, the mainstream shrimp farmers can use electricity and allied facilities in their households and farming units.It denoted significant development and improvement in the coastal communities living standards directly linked to shrimp farming in Bangladesh.Most of the people used pond sand filter facilities for drinking water.However, fewer people have to use rainwater after harvesting it while the rest use water directly from the pond without any filtration.Hossain et al.and Ali et al.observed that a large share of collected water was brought from the government groundwater tube well and neighboring tube-well in Bangladesh.Due to the critical and demanding nature of natural water supply, most of the population is concerned about drinking water safety, with a moderate population of people opined having no idea.Only 10 % pronounced it as unsafe for drinking purposes.The provision of safe drinking water for livestock animals was not considered during this study.Safe drinking water is of paramount importance for the human populations as well as sustainable management of drinking waters is equally essential as it is liable for health and public safety.