Globalization and agrarian change: a case of freshwater prawn farming in Bangladesh

Abstract This paper examines changing agrarian institutions in south‐western Bangladesh where a large number of farmers, small and large, have switched from rice farming to export‐oriented freshwater prawn farming within the last decade. The local economy boomed until ecological and managerial problems began to threaten the sustainability of the farming activities. At the same time, the impact of global competition is forcing the industry to adopt so‐called global standards concerning food safety and sanitary conditions. This demands the restructuring of the local supply chain at the bottom of which a significant number of small farmers are struggling to survive. It is argued that this restructuring is leading to small farmers' reduced access to financial capital, and possibly to changes in ownership patterns of freshwater prawn farms. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.