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Contributions and Challenges of Dhaka’s Food System: The Case of Fish Provision

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Urban Development Challenges, Risks and Resilience in Asian Mega Cities

Part of the book series: Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences ((AGES))

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Abstract

The food system of Bangladesh is currently producing a wide range of contradictions: Domestic food production was increased at unprecedented rates, but not without ecologically damaging side effects. Supply chains work efficient insofar as enough food is transported to the consumers. Nevertheless, stark discrepancies can be detected between the involved actors, from single dominant market makers to the masses of day labourers who can hardly make a living. And even though enough amounts of food are supplied to consumer markets, food security is far from being attained. This chapter sheds light on the extent of dysfunctionalities of Bangladesh’s food system from a sustainability perspective by focussing on the capital city of Dhaka. The case of fish provision is taken to discuss present day challenges of the mega city in terms of food production, supply and food security. In the first part, I will discuss recent developments in national fish production and outline the structure of the supply and value chain for fresh fish. In the second part, I focus on the local food market of Dhaka and debate available amounts and seasonally fluctuating prices. In the last part, I will bring together the national and the local perspective to provide proposals for necessary future re-adjustments.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Some historians even speak of a population figure of 900,000 for Dhaka of the 1700s. However, in this regard, I follow other well-known urban scientists who criticize this figure to be unrealistic (Islam 2005, p. 7).

  2. 2.

    From 1974 onwards, it is distinguished between the population of “Dhaka City” and the population of the “Metropolitan Area of Dhaka”. Dhaka City refers to the area of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) that comprises 145 km2 and extends from Buriganga river in the south, to Mirpur in the north–west, and Tongi in the north (Islam 2005, p. 8). The Metropolitan Area of Dhaka changes over time. In 1974, it refers to the Dhaka Metropolitan Area (DMA) that covers a territory of 306 km2 including DCC (ibd). From 1981 onwards it refers to Dhaka Statistical Metropolitan Area (DSMA) which covers an area of 797 km2 in 1981 and an area of 1,353 km2 in the following years. The DSMA includes the DMA, the DCC, and the municipalities of Narayanganj and Munshiganj in the south east, Savar in the west, as well as Tongi and Gazipur in the north (ibd). For 2010, “Megacity of Dhaka” is introduced as additional territorial reference category which is congruent with the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP) and equals an area of 1,528 km2 (Islam 2010). In order to avoid misunderstandings, all figures on growth rates refer to the DCC area only.

  3. 3.

    On 29 November 2011 the government of Bangladesh split the Dhaka City Corporation into two corporations, North and South. This study was finalized before this dissociation.

  4. 4.

    Value chains are defined as a “network of organizations that are involved, through upstream and downstream linkages, in the different processes and activities that produce value in the form of products and services in the hands of the ultimate consumer” (Christopher 1998, p. 15).

  5. 5.

    Nonetheless, also bigger fishes are available in the market. These are usually older fishes that were used for reproduction purposes. Carps become sexually mature not before the age of 3–4 years. These examples are usually larger and more expensive.

  6. 6.

    For this study, it was consciously decided to take the native fish names as they are prevalent in Bangladesh. Anyone who is interested in the scientific names of these fishes, is referred to information that is available online under: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fishes_in_Bangladesh.

  7. 7.

    These figures are based on the volume of sales in the markets of Dhaka.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the German Research Foundation (DFG), who funded the project “The mega-urban food system of Dhaka/Bangladesh” (Grant No. BO 680/35-1/-2) within the research program “Megacities—Megachallenge: Informal Dynamics of Global Change”. Special thanks go to Hans-Georg Bohle (University of Bonn) and to Wolfgang-Peter Zingel (University of Heidelberg) who led the research project, to Shafique uz-Zaman (Dhaka University) for continuous support, to Benjamin Etzold (University of Bonn) for collaboration and synergetic effects and to Shahidul Haque (Dhaka University) for his efforts in facilitating my research in the field.

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  1. Department of Human Geography, Institute of Geography, Goldschmidtstr. 5, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Markus Keck

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  1. University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    R.B. Singh

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Keck, M. (2015). Contributions and Challenges of Dhaka’s Food System: The Case of Fish Provision. In: Singh, R. (eds) Urban Development Challenges, Risks and Resilience in Asian Mega Cities. Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55043-3_24

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