Shisuk, short for Shikha Shastha Unnayan Karzakram, stands for Education, Healty and Development Program is an NGO engaged with programmes in community fisheries, sustainable agriculture and (save) migration. Shisuk was incepted in 1994 and has been engaged in Daudkandi upazila since then. From 1994 to 1996 it initiated its ‘community enterprise approach’ for a community based flood plain fisheries project called Pankowri. It can be described as a ‘new approach to for sustainable development’. With this Shisuk intents to demonstrate management of resources: human, knowledge, land, water and capital in partnership with the community to facilitate self-reliant sustainable development and equitable sharing of benefits. Shisuk addresses sustainability through community approach involving the disadvantaged and influential class together in the process of socioeconomic development offering more interaction and participation of stakeholders to create an enabling environment for good governance, generation of innovative ideas, initiation of community actions to foster replication of good practices and influencing policy changes. In Daudkandi and adjacent areas there are now more than 90 fishery projects covering around 5000 ha. It all started with 350 families from six villages of the flood prone Eliotganj Union in Daudkandi under supervision of Shisuk. Before in some of the areas scattered efforts of fish culture in conventional manner were attempted. However these were isolated efforts because the flood plains are owned by many and uniting them needed a transparent supervision. Now 13% of floodplain area in Daudkandi upazila has been brought under aquaculture and during monsoons inundated arable land is used for fish farming. At the primary stage acquiring capital was crucial. Therefore Shisuk and 375 families raises a capital of 20 lakh BDT (ca. 2000€) on a partnership basis. The capital was raised by selling 2000 shares, each worth 1000 BDT. The owners of the 850ha flooded plains were given the opportunity to purchase shares on an equity basis. Therefore the maximum number of share to be purchased was limited to 20 shares or 1% of the total share. Shisuk and its development partner owns 15% of the total investment. Among other benefits these fishery projects offer now many different job opportunities for the local population and helped to establish a certain grade of wealth. An executive committee of the project oversees the participation of the rural population, and other activities such as capital formation and investment, cost management, income generation, dividend declaration, banking and share allocation. The committee members are selected on the basis of consensus of the project members. Such steps have contributed in embolding the confidence of the project members. Here mere profit is not the lone motivator behind this collective endeavor. The strive had always been for sustainable development. Thus activities that could contribute to environment pollution were avoided. A certain portion of the profit is invested on digging tube wells so that the easy availability of pure drinking water is ensured. Other philantrophic activities such as financing marriages of poor women, repairing temples and mosques were also undertaken. The social fishery projects have also contributed to the modernization of agricultural management. The organic fertilizer and fish feed is produced from locally available ingredients and has contributed in enhancing fertility of the arable land. Now additional fertilizer isn’t needed anymore for local agriculture. As flood plains need to be cleansed regularly, weeds are no more a hindrance for the local farmers. Besides the controlled water drainage system of the project has made agriculture possible without the use of tillers. It has made agriculture more cost effective. Maintaining steady water level water for fish culture has also increased wetness of the soil which enables the farmers to grow their crop even in periods of drought or in the dry seasons. Fish culture in the project areas have similtaneously lessened the agri-cost by 20% and enhanced production by 10-15%. The next step is to find a possibility to process the harvested fish in the area. www.shisuk.org

• published: 16 Oct 2014
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