Integrating Artemia culture on small-scale salt farms to enhance food security and nutrition, livelihoods and climate resilience

Introduction and overview

Between 2018 and 2023, Bangladesh enacted laws that regulate hatcheries, feed, and biosecurity in aquaculture. It also issued guidelines and policies on commercial shrimp farming, cage fish farming in rivers and other water bodies, and fish and fish seed production, marketing and management.The following case study was submitted by the Bangladesh Department of Fisheries.

In the Bangladesh coastal district of Cox’s Bazar, 50 000 small-scale farmers work across some 27 000 hectares of land to produce 2 million metric tonnes of crude salt a year, making up nearly 95 percent of the nation’s total.  They farm salt during the dry season from January to June and produce fish and shrimp during the rainy season from July to November on the same land. 

Roughly 60 percent of their income² comes from salt production; however, these farmers often struggle to make ends meet and to feed their families due to erratic rainfall, cyclones, flash floods, and low aquaculture productivity. These result in poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition.

This case study examines how Bangladesh successfully alleviated poverty and enhanced livelihoods, food security and nutrition in Cox’s Bazar through a project that integrated the cultivation of brine shrimp (Artemia spp.) onto small-scale salt farms, and how the practices that were introduced align with the FAO Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture. The project was funded by the Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA) initiative of the European Union.

Artemia farming was integrated with the cultivation of other crustaceans, various fish species and vegetables, and coupled with the adoption of environmentally friendly, climate-smart practices to optimize the use of water and make the salt farms productive year-round. This integrated salt farming-aquaculture-agriculture approach resulted in a rise in farmer incomes, diversified and climate-resilient livelihoods, and enhanced food security and nutrition for their households.

A participatory, community-based approach

Local farmers were organized and encouraged to demonstrate how to establish Artemia ponds, plant vegetables along the pond dikes and add shrimp nurseries and grow-out areas in nearby ditches and canals. Artemia was grown during the salt farming season, while Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT)⁴ was reared in the Artemia ponds during the rainy season.

By the fourth year from the start of the project,⁵ Artemia biomass and cyst production had reached an annual production of 6.7 tonnes and 50 kg, respectively.  The farmers sold it to local hatcheries to feed shrimp broodstock and shrimp juveniles. They also used it to feed their own and neighbouring farmers’ shrimp postlarvae and juveniles as well as crablets.

The innovations were adopted by 3 000 farmers, who reported that their annual income rose by a minimum of 40 percent as a result. With an average of six people to a household, this means around 18 000 people in Cox’s Bazar benefited from enhanced livelihoods, food security and nutrition.

The project delivered 285 hands-on aquaculture demonstrations and trained over 1 000 salt farmers, who received comprehensive capacity building in Artemia production, tilapia and homestead aquaculture and improvements to traditional marine aquaculture. As a result, they were able to supplement their incomes by selling Artemia as aquafeed to local shrimp hatcheries, nurseries, grow-out farms, as well as fish, shrimp, and crab producers. 

Enhancing livelihoods of small-scale farmers through Artemia integration

They were equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to implement advanced farming techniques effectively, with 65 percent of participants applying what they learned. As a result, they were able to produce 172 tonnes of shrimp, 380 tonnes of fish and 31 tonnes of crab in an area covering 1 139 hectares, compared to 120 tonnes of shrimp, 140 tonnes of fish and 5 tonnes of crab before the intervention.

Fifty-seven Artemia demonstration farmers produced 120 kg of Artemia cysts and 11.4 metric tonnes of Artemia biomass in 16.8 hectares of water. The locally produced cysts were of excellent quality in terms of size, high hatching percentage (86 percent), unsaturated fatty acid content (EPA) and density, with more than 300 000 cysts per gram.

Mr Nurul Islam, the very first farmer who took part in the project, received equipment, starter Artemia larvae and support to dig a pond and stock it. He reported that he began harvesting Artemia just six weeks later. In the first year, he sold 12 kg of Artemia biomass at 500 Bangladeshi Taka (around USD 4 per kg) to a local hatchery.  The following year, he harvested for the first time about 2 kg of Artemia cysts and earned 16 000 Taka (USD 130) from their sale. In the fourth year, he produced 11 kg of cysts, selling 7 kg and keeping the rest for his own farming.

Fellow project beneficiary, Mr Harunur Rashid reported he is currently able to sell about 200 kg of Artemia biomass at up to 600 Bangladeshi Taka (almost USD 5 per kg) to local hatcheries and shrimp farmers and 5 kg of cysts at up to 8 000 Taka (USD 65 per kg). For comparison, the average national monthly household income was 16 000 Bangladeshi Taka (just over USD 130) in 2016,⁷ according to the latest available data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

The socioeconomic conditions of participating farmers improved, with 88 percent of demonstration and 72 percent of trained farmers enabled to open savings accounts in banks. The annual income of the demonstration farmers increased by a range of 45-83 percent, depending on the type of intervention and the technologies they adopted.

On average, the annual income of farmers who were trained in at least one new technology increased by 21 percent. Likewise, the income of demonstration and trained farmers was found to be higher than that of non-intervention farmers.

Introducing recirculation aquaculture systems and integrated farming for climate resilience

The initiative introduced recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS) for shrimp larvae and broodstock rearing to increase the availability of quality postlarvae shrimp for the farmers and optimize the use of water.

Recirculation aquaculture is environmentally sustainable⁹ because it limits the amount of water used per kg of aquatic animals produced. These systems also make it easier and cheaper to remove excreted nutrients, which in turn can be used as crop fertilizer or to produce biogas.

The post-larvae shrimp reared in RAS had excellent survival as well as growth rates during the juvenile and grow-out phases.

In addition, Artemia pond culture was combined with vegetable farming as well as fish and shrimp cultivation on the same plots of land. This approach made the salt farms productive year-round, optimized the use of natural resources and increased farmer incomes and food security and nutrition.

Further, GIFT tilapia nursing was introduced through bamboo and net fencing to improve traditional aquaculture practices in the salt fields during the rainy season. This was effective in increasing productivity, profitability, income and employment opportunities, and reducing the risk of production losses from salt farming during adverse weather events.

The introduction of Artemia provided a way to adapt to the impacts of climate change, because brine shrimp is resilient to changing water salinity and temperatures. This means salt farmers in the climate-challenged Cox’s Bazar district can rely on their brine shrimp ponds to remain productive during adverse weather events such as flash rains in the dry season, which compromise their salt farming income. If salt farming becomes non-viable, the farmers can fall back on Artemia and crustaceans such as shrimp and crabs, which can survive changes in water temperatures and salinity.

The project proactively provided farmers with alternative livelihoods by diversifying their salt farms, making them more resilient and productive year-round. The success stories of the farmers who adopted Artemia culture and other interventions generated enthusiasm among neighbouring farmers. Overall, more than 3 000 farmers in Cox’s Bazar adopted the new climate-smart aquaculture technologies.

In addition, the biomass was laboratory tested and found to be free of major pathogens, namely white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) and Vibrio harveyi.

It was also found to be of high nutritional value with 51 percent crude protein, highly unsaturated fatty acids (EPA and DHA) and essential amino acids. It was used as aquafeed in shrimp hatcheries and nurseries, crab nurseries, shrimp and fish grow-out ponds and for human consumption (for example, to make tasty Artemia kebabs). More than 200 farmers used Artemia biomass to feed shrimp in grow-out areas spanning 4 000 hectares.

Empowering women and youth through awareness raising, capacity building

The project engaged with women, youth and adolescents through capacity building and awareness-raising activities, including gender sensitivity training for men, a campaign against gender-based violence, the celebration of International Women’s Day, and linkages with governmental and non-governmental organizations.

More than 100 women from salt farming families integrated nutrition-sensitive carp-mola¹⁰-tilapia polyculture into their homestead ponds and added vegetable production along the pond dykes, improving food security and providing diverse and healthy diets for their households while optimizing the use of water and land.

Women from the demonstration farmer families were supported to establish their own income-generating activities in the form of homestead aquaculture and vegetable gardening. They received training on hygiene and basic nutrition, including tasty Artemia recipes to diversify and strengthen household diets, especially for children. This empowered the women, who gained self-confidence and were enabled to contribute to household incomes and decision-making.

The awareness raising on gender issues for men was effective in facilitating women's participation, while the establishment of salt farmer clusters helped tackle gender constraints, foster women and youth engagement, and promote the sharing of knowledge, resources, and technologies to the benefit of all.

In total, 239 capacity-building events were organized with 7 644 participants (of whom 2 096 were women and 1 064 were youth). These included training on Artemia culture and other aquaculture technologies and market promotion as well as study and exchange visits, national and international workshops, consultation meetings, policy dialogues to review the national fisheries policy to encourage integrated Artemia aquaculture, the celebration of National Fish Week and participation in scientific conferences.

The project also delivered training and extension materials, including an Artemia recipe book, factsheets, posters, banners, notebooks, a book of success stories, videos, and scale models showing Artemia pond culture in crude salt production areas, tilapia culture in Artemia ponds, mola fingerlings and tilapia polyculture in women-led homestead ponds with shrimp nurseries and grow-out areas in adjacent ditches and canals and improved traditional aquaculture on salt farms during the rainy season.

Promoting clusters, capacity building and public-private partnerships for more equitable value chains

The establishment of salt farming clusters fostered participation and the sharing of knowledge and resources, as well as the dissemination and adoption of new technologies. Partnerships with NGOs created opportunities for access to microcredit, while market linkages with private companies enhanced the availability of seed, feed, and other production-related materials the farmers need to run their businesses.

The project worked actively to foster public-private partnerships and networking among value chain actors – farmers and their clusters, hatcheries and marketing agents, specialists and laboratories – with the understanding that PPPs are crucial to drive the sustainable expansion of Artemia culture because they facilitate knowledge exchange, technology adoption, and market access while also optimizing resource use, increasing productivity, and improving product quality.

In total, 239 capacity-building events were organized with 7 644 participants, of whom 2 096 were women and 1 064 were youth. They included training on Artemia culture and other aquaculture technologies and market promotion as well as study and exchange visits, national and international workshops, consultation meetings, policy dialogues to review the national fisheries policy to encourage integrated Artemia aquaculture, the celebration of National Fish Week and participation in scientific conferences.

The project also delivered training and extension materials for clusters and value chain actors, including handbooks on standard operating procedures, farmers’ record books and training manuals. 

A successful South-South and triangular cooperation effort

The project exemplified a successful South-South and triangular cooperation model, with academic and research institutions from three different countries sharing knowledge and technologies for the benefit of small-scale farmers and their communities. These were: the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI), Bangladeshi universities, Can Tho University in Viet Nam and Ghent University in Belgium, plus one international research non-profit organization, WorldFish, as the implementing partner on the ground.

The initiative also counted on the leadership of the Bangladesh Department of Fisheries, with the collaboration of Shushilan NGO, Mukti Cox’s Bazar NGO, and the COAST Foundation NGO and the participatory engagement of the small-scale farmers of Cox’s Bazar, local hatcheries, and the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC).

In addition, 12 scientific articles were published in science magazines and findings were presented at scientific conferences. A list is available at the end of this case study.

Potential for scaling: regional, national and international

The project demonstrated that growing Artemia is technically feasible, environmentally sustainable and socially acceptable in Bangladesh. Climate-adaptive Artemia cultivation, coupled with integrated aquaculture technologies, has the potential to be scaled out to help the country’s 50 000 salt farmers, 300 000 shrimp and prawn farmers and 35 million people living along its coasts.

The successful introduction of Artemia onto the salt farms of Cox’s Bazar has wider implications for the national economy because brine shrimp is highly valued as aquafeed, and Bangladesh currently imports it to support its domestic aquaculture industry. If the practice were scaled out, it has the potential to cut costs significantly while making the country self-reliant by growing its own supply of aquafeed. Furthermore, the technology could be transferred to any other country that engages in both crude salt production and coastal aquaculture.