Livelihood assessment of seaweed beneficiaries at Nuniachara, Cox's Bazar

Abstract

Fishing has been prioritized as the major economic activity of the coastal community and most of them are involved in livelihood earning from a very young age. Though they are primarily engaged in fishing, they are now involved in the recent seaweed culture trend. Seaweed culture is a feasible alternative livelihood for the coastal fishing population. In this study, an assessment of the socio-economic and livelihood status of seaweed beneficiaries was conducted at Nuniachara, Cox's Bazar as seaweed farming is thriving there. The study method included a questionnaire, survey, group discussion and public interview, and the findings revealed that almost 44% of the participants had never been to any school and only 3% had completed their S.S.C. Around 47% of respondents came from large families and most of the beneficiaries' economic status is poor (47%) according to their monthly income but almost 65% agreed that their financial condition has moderately improved after involving in seaweed farming. Despite fishing (78%) being their major occupation for decades, they are now opting for other side jobs during the off-season of fishing, though the percentage is exiguous. Approximately 36% of the respondents admitted that environmental changes along with ongoing airport construction and extension work have a significant impact on their livelihood through capture fisheries. From this study, we can claim that seaweed farming has reached tremendous success in initiating women empowerment; more than 70% of women in this community are involved in seaweed farming and contributing to their family income. This study indicates that it is the high time we took the initiative on seaweed beneficiaries as well as on the livelihood management strategy to mitigate the highlighted ecological and socio-economic difficulties they face.