The Daily Star (Bangladesh) featured research by IFPRI scholars presented at the BIDS Annual Conference on Development 2025, highlighting new evidence on aquaculture value chains, agricultural mechanization, and social protection.
The article reported on a presentation by IFPRI Research Fellow Ben Belton, who shared findings from his paper, “Wholesalers and the Transformation of the ‘Hidden Middle’ of the Aquaculture Value Chain in Bangladesh.” Drawing on survey data collected in 2020 and revisiting the same locations studied in 2013, Belton showed that Bangladesh’s aquaculture sector has undergone rapid modernization. Notably, 89 percent of farmers now sell fish through auction-based markets, reducing reliance on traditional middlemen and benefiting from more transparent pricing. Improvements in transport, communications, icing, packaging, and the growing sale of live fish have also contributed to lower losses and greater efficiency across the value chain.
The session also featured presentations by two other IFPRI Research Fellows. Moogdho Mahzab presented research on mechanized harvesting, examining its implications for agricultural productivity and labor dynamics. Mehrab Bakhtiar discussed evidence on the long-term impacts of social assistance programs, focusing on their effects on consumption patterns and poverty reduction.