Nutrition-Sensitive Homestead Pond Polyculture Technology Empowers Women in Rural Bangladesh

Women’s empowerment in aquatic food systems plays a critical role in increasing production and ensuring food and nutrition security. This study used qualitative data from a mixed-method study to assess whether participation in a nutrition-sensitive homestead pond polyculture systems, targeting both women and men, strengthens women’s decision-making power in fish culture, harvesting, and household food purchase. The project promoted pond polyculture technology of nutrient-rich small and large fish species, which was adopted by the majority of project households (86.3%). Fish harvesting for family consumption and sale was more frequent in project households (24% twice/week; 54.9% once/year) compared to non-project households (13%; 47.8%). Joint decision-making by both women and men on the types of fish species to culture (80.39%) and harvesting time for sale (54.9%) was more common in project households, compared to non-project households (43.48% and 21.74%, respectively). More women in project households (41.2%) decided which fish species to harvest for family consumption, including harvested fish for family consumption (7.8%) and sale (3.9%), compared to non-project households (26.1%, 4.4% and none respectively). The findings reveal three interlinked empowerment pathways: the consumption pathway, via frequent fish harvesting, the income pathway, through fish sales, and the empowerment pathway, through enhanced decision making.