Bangladesh's Fisheries Department received the Edouard Saouma Award for its implementation of a project that improved rural pond-fish culture extension services throughout the country.

Bangladesh's "Blue Revolution" has resulted in a 50 percent increase in aquaculture production, primarily because of a new semi-intensive technology that uses locally available feed ingredients and other inputs. With the help of FAO, the government developed the technology and tested it in different agroclimatic regions of the country. Householders have at least doubled their income from raising carp and other fish in traditional backyard pools.

An innovative extension approach was also developed to disseminate the new technology on a mass scale. An FAO pilot project taught the new methods to hand-picked farmers who, in return for the training, trained other fish farmers at no cost; a type of "trickle down" extension service. The national government has used the project as a model for a low-cost country-wide extension service.

The new aquaculture technology directly benefits women and children who care for and profit from the backyard ponds. Thanks to the new system, aquaculture production from ponds has gone up from an annual average of about 1 200 kg per hectare before 1993 to about 1 800 kg per hectare in 1995/96. From 1990 to 1995/96, average per caput daily availability of fish has increased from 20 to 27 kg.

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