Recently our article about the PAConDAA project has been published in the most read English newspaper in Bangladesh. This is a unique opportunity to give voice to the people in Southern Bangladesh.

You can read the full article here:

Revisiting poverty reduction approach in Southern Bangladesh

Our partners from Swansea have been conducting a series of workshops with local artists and young people in Bangladesh to engage with local communities, get to know them and work together:

Check our twitter page for more info: #PACONDAA – latest

Our Swansea partners have been conducting some workshops in Bangladesh with farmers to engage scientists and farmers to share knowledge and learn from each other about resilient aquaculture systems:

Check our Twitter page for more info: #PACONDAA – lastest

March also saw the second DBT review of our project. This review meeting was held in Vellore at CAHC. Dr Hauton represented the UK partners on the project, whilst Dr Salam presented a summary of work conducted in Bangladesh during the past year. This has been a particular difficult year for Bangladesh, with devastating fluids destroying crops and washing away shrimp and carp ponds. Nonetheless, Dr Salam was able to report on successful surveys of fish farmers conducted in the north of the Bangladesh during 2017. Work in India was also presented by Dr Sahul Hameed from CAHC, Dr Pradhan from NBFGR in Lucknow and Drs Shekhar and Vinay from CIBA in Chennai.

After this review meeting the team visited Elavoor village on the border of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to interact with farmers at a CIBA organised event to celebrate Krishi Unnati. Soil test cards were distributed and farmers received advice on shrimp farming.

More info:

http://www.ciba.res.in/index.php/component/content/article?layout=edit&id=894%20

Second year project review meeting will be held in C Abdul Hakeem College, India on 13.03.2018. After the meeting a workshop with farmers will take place.

Drs Hauton and Shehkar attended an ESRC Newton Award holder event on maximising impact that was hosted by the University of Glasgow and the ESRC at the Radisson Blu hotel in Glasgow. This two-day event brought together Newton Project awardees from all over the world to share their experiences of maximising the impact of their awards and to learn the latest opportunities for additional funding to enhance the impact opportunities for funded project.

Drs Hauton and Smith visited CAHC in Vellore during August to take part in joint WSSV-infection trials with Dr Sahul Hameed and his research team. Studies compared the mortality in the white shrimp Penaeus vannameiand the freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergiiwhen infected with a new strain of WSSV isolated in India (Sahul Hameed et al., in press. Journal of Fish Diseases). During this week visit, the team participated in an International Seminar on Disease of Aquatic Animals that was attend by Dr S. Felix from Tamil Nadu Fisheries University who gave the Inaugural Address.

Recently the project has attracted the attention of the media, with some nice articles that explain the rationale behind our work:

Can the environment help control disease in Asian aquaculture?

(in: EurekAlert – The global source for science news)

Alleviating poverty through disease control

(in: World fishing and aquaculture – Informing the global fishing industry since 1952)

Consortium members from the UK and Bangladesh attended the recent ISAAHE symposium hosted by the NBFGR in Lucknow. This meeting, which was attend by researchers, farmers and other stakeholders across India included presentations by Profs Morgan and Van West and Drs Hauton, Smith, Pradhan and Sood.

Subjects included principles of epidemiology and practical epidemiology, policy frameworks for presenting disease, new developments in our understanding of diseases in molluscs, crustaceans and fish as well as outcomes of the Indian Disease Surveillance Programme for aquaculture.

This meeting was immediately followed by a funding review meeting held for the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), which was hosted by the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture in Chennai. This one-day meeting reviewed progress during the first year of the projects and agreed a plan of work for the next twelve months and heard presentations from all Tasks and teams in the project.

Drs Chris Hauton, Sergei Shubin and Tanjil Sowgat recently spent time in Khulna and Mymensingh, visiting shrimp farmers, promoting the work or the project and conducting socioeconomic surveys and questionnaires. This visit was part of a 50-day programme of fieldwork conducted by Dr Sowgat in different districts in Bangladesh. During the field activities the research team also made contact with local NGOs in Bangladesh, including JJS (Jagrata Juba Sangha) that provided their support for the South Bangladesh (Koyra) field work.