Meeting local demand vulnerable to the needs of organisations supporting change in rural areas. The IMMANA programme is asking us to use data from our previous and current field work to develop a simple metric that will allow grass roots health workers to better target female adolescents most at risk from undernutrition in aquaculture communities. The project - Metric for Aquaculture Nutritional Impact for Girls (MEFANIG) - is now beginning a second round of field data collection that includes collecting blood samples of girls to assess biomarkers, and dietary assessments. A key area of inquiry is around the level of autonomy in dietary choice for adolescents and how farming systems impact on actual availability of different foods at the local level. The systems that we are working in would be familiar to those aquaculture critics of the past. People living in Bangladeshi coastal communities remain poor and vulnerable to both established and emerging threats (climate change, for example). The culture systems remain extensive, highly biodiverse and employ large numbers of people both in the value chain and on the farm. They remain almost entirely uncertified by international and even local organisations; major challenges remain in publicising and supporting uptakes of best management practices among the huge numbers of micro-producing households. One outcome is that the quality of the shrimp and crabs destined for international markets have increasingly unique but currently under-valued natural attributes. And, critically, they continue to produce large amounts of nutritionally high quality food that enters local food markets, a situation largely unreported and unrecognised in earlier accounts of coastal aquaculture in Bangladesh. Improved off-farm linkages and market connectivity have also dramatically changed opportunities to access foods for many, and led to a growing proportion of food purchased. Understanding how the most vulnerable groups can, or cannot, access such resources is critical to Bangladesh overcoming its intergenerational poverty; under-nutrition among adolescent mothers and their children remains a major concern. The MEFANIG project aims to refine the advice available to practitioners that work to improve the lives of the rural poor either through health and nutrition interventions and/or through improved food production. The lens through which we assess the impacts of aquaculture has certainly changed over the last decade but so has the urgency to communicate this more comprehensive understanding. The pressures of intensi-
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They produce large amounts of nutritionally high quality food that enters local food markets
fication of food production risk some of the nutritional benefits of farmed seafood being lost. Through working together in MEFANIG, the project team aims to contribute evidence that informs the emerging debates around nutrition sensitive aquaculture and its role in food systems that keep people healthy and support social and ecological resilience in producer communities. 1 https://ssrn.com/abstract=786094;2https://www.stir. ac.uk/research/hub/publication/24732; 3https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/ S0044848617325292 4SEAT 2009-2014; EU- FP7Project number 222889 ; http://seatglobal.eu/ 5https://immana.lcirah.ac.uk
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Opposite page: Large amounts of Bangladeshi seafood enters local markets. Above: The IMMANA group, with Francis Murray (far left) and Dave Little (third left). Left: Dave Little and Abdullah Mamun working with communities in Bangladesh.
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