Questions/Answers

About 1.25 million people in Bangladesh are directly involved in fish sector and over 12million additional rural people depends indirectly on this sector for livelihood. Department of Fishers (DOF), which is under the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock is continuously working to ensure that people involved in this sector makes a significant stride in country’s economy through increasing their fish production and sustainable utilization of fisheries resources. In the country, fish farmers however suffers a lot in increasing their production- a) due to lack of information about new fish cultivation techniques; b) due to lack of manpower shortage in sub-district fisheries offices, leading fish farmers to seek fisheries related scientific advice from medicine sellers, dwellers, who have limited scientific knowledge about fish cultivation and fish diseases. The problem is further aggravated by the fact that sub-district fisheries offices are situated in locations which are far-off from where fish farmers stay. Leading fish farmers to rely on age-old fish farming techniques that results in a loss of production. Technological application was necessary to improve their condition. As such, DOF introduced “fish advice app” which contains a myriad of information including scientific knowledge on fish farming and picture of numerous fish diseases

“Fish Advice App” is addressing one of the main challenges faced by sub-district fisheries offices. It is making fish related numerous information available in a cheaper and simpler form; open so that anyone can access it for their advantage at all times. At its outset, the app is ensuring DOF remains effective in delivering its core services at the local level. It is also making government accountable in providing improved services through using digital technologies.

The 2030 agenda recognizes the importance of managing natural resources in ensuring social and economic development of a country. Fish advice app is providing its users with myriads of information- including scientific knowledge and guideline on fish cultivation, fish disease prevention, and fish feed to improve their production and ensure they responsibly gets involved in the production. Availability of science-based management techniques in the app indicates that fish farmers are well-equipped and can involve in fish practices that are not detrimental for the environment. This initiative is relevant to SDG goal 2 & 14: zero hunger and life below water

The fish advice app is addressing the needs of fish farmers (including rural women) who often rely on fish farming to make their living. The local sub-district fish offices that are responsible to provide fish farmers the advice they require to improve their livelihood, often face severe difficulties due to the manpower shortage in their respective offices. A digital technology can minimize the inefficiency existent in the public sector institution and can make the government accountable in providing improved and effective services.The app that has been developed is bringing this exact transformation in the sub-district fisheries offices of Bangladesh. Since the initiative is making services simpler, cheaper, and open; the vulnerable population, especially the marginal poor can avail all the benefits and improve their income and livelihood condition at any time.

Previously, many poor and vulnerable fish farmers had to travel a long distance to access sub-district fish offices, which are at far-off location. Leading them to spend a lot of time and money to access government provided basic services. This Fish Advice App has made a wide range of fish related information available for fish farmers, leading local government offices to effectively deal with inefficiencies in their service delivery system. This app also has an indirect contribution in the lives of farmers, who now have more time to engage in other income generating activities just by effectively managing their farms

Although developing app is not a new concept, it is a completely new innovation in the fisheries sector of Bangladesh. a2i, an innovation intermediary within the Government of Bangladesh, arranges for empathy training for civil servants. After receiving the training, a senior sub-district fisheries officer decided to design a user-friendly mobile app and pilot it in the Noakhali Sadar Upzilla (sub-district) of Bangladesh. Seeing the popularity of this app and its domino effect (where farmers who do not use the app or never heard of it are being motivated to use it), the directorate decided to launch the app nationwide.

Fish advice app is made available through google play store. Thus, any farmer with some level of technological knowledge can benefit from this app. This app was downloaded over 25,000 times during the piloting phase, showing significant impact that an app can have in people who needs it the most. The introduction of the app has also created a domino effect where farmers who never heard about the app are being motivated to use it by the ones who do. The success of the app made department of livestock to start a similar project livestock diary in Gazipur Sadar area

The initiative was the realization by a senior sub-district fisheries officer of the hassles farmers go through in accessing public services. This made him to take the lead and mobilize financial resources available at his own directorate and develop an app that contains fish related information including- advanced fish farming techniques and the many diseases of fishes. A task force was formed in noakhali sadar sub-district fisheries office in the overall supervision of the sub-district fisheries officer. one field assistant and one office assistant gathered all the information for the app, to ensure farmer gets the best advice through it.

Since an app has been developed to make information available to people it will continue to serve the purpose of fish farmers. A task force within the local government office also indicates that the availability of information will be reliable and open for the farmers at all times. The partnerships that were formed with advanced fish farmers; entrepreneurs of union digital centres (each with 4km of citizens’ residence) will continue to play a key role in the dissemination of the app, especially to the farmers who are low-literate and have limited technological knowledge. At its outset, this app will continue to provide services that will make public institutions more accountable in improving effectiveness in their operational activities

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Both primary and secondary sources were taken into consideration in conducting the evaluation. Several publications, journals, books, policy papers were reviewed to carry out the desk research; and snowball sampling technique was used to collect primary data from 10 districts. The objective of the study conducted was to figure out the experience of app users. Over the phone and online survey were also done with both fish farmers and authority level respondents to understand the overall time, cost, and visit reduction, and all the benefits that comes from using app. A workshop was later arranged to supplement the quantitative study.

Many variables were deemed important in this study to understand the overall advantage of the app a) types of information required by fish farmers and the channels they use to get the information b) the overall time, cost, and visit reduction in receiving services using the app c) Level of satisfaction of fish app users, and d) increase in annual fish production. This study also considered “inspiring others to use app” as an important variable; considering the limited technological knowledge of many farmers regarding advanced technologies.

The study revealed that 98% people in the study area require information on fisheries. This significantly justifies the decision of DOF in using technology to serve citizens with improved services. From the study, it also becomes clearer that through using fish advice app 85% of the respondents saw an influx in annual fish production. Most importantly this study highlighted that fish advice app has significantly served its purpose of making effective and transformative public institution by reducing time,cost,and visits of service recipients by 90%, 80% and 98% respectively

a2i is a special programme of ICT division of Bangladesh that catalyzes citizen-friendly public services and nurtures a culture of innovation among the civil servants of the country. This organization has provided technical support in designing the app. The app fish advice showed great promise in the piloting area in dealing with farmers’ biggest problem of getting information from reliable sources. Following the piloting, the directorate of fisheries thus launched the app nationwide. Seeing the success of the piloting, a2i did a study in ten districts to find out the effectiveness of the app. The study highlighted a positive impact including overall time, cost, and visit reduction, leading the directorate of fisheries to bring further improvement in the app. In the implementation stage, partnerships were developed with union digital centres ( each within 4km of a citizen’s residence); medicine sellers; fish sellers; and advanced fish farmers to ensure that the farmers receive the app even when they have limited technological knowledge. With the help of this app, these farmers have been able to advance their production (66% of the farmers in a2i’s study area increased their catch by 50 kg).

Collecting photos of fish diseases, scientific information and guideline on advanced farming lead to the realization that all the information made available in the app has to be relevant to the country context. Also, considering some challenges poor farmers face in understanding the information available in the fish advice app, a supportive network needs to be created so that farmers can avail the full benefits of the fish app. A linkage with union digital centres ( spread across the country) can bring improvement in both case- digitally literate entrepreneurs can collect relevant farming information; and advance technical know-how of farmers.