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A participatory stakeholder-based approach was employed to improve the quality of exportable fish and prawn landed in Kulierchar of Kishoregonj through reduction of the post harvest loss and its impacts were assessed. Primary data revealed that wet fish were minimally washed with clean water immediately after harvest. Ice boxes were not used in any stages from harvest to processing plants. Bamboo split baskets were mostly used to keep or carry fish. Landed fish were found to be dispersed on plastic mat or polythene paper kept on earthen floor of the wholesaler shed, called "Arat". Icing of individual catch soon after harvest was very insignificant, ranging from 2 -15 % only. Prawn were found to be iced during transport to landing center at little higher rate (32%), but most of the other fish were not significantly iced during transport to landing center. Primary awareness of the beneficiaries on quality deterioration of fish was assessed and the impacts of participatory awareness development tools (PRA and RRA, personal contacts, brain storming and awareness development training) on export, income, nutrition and improved handling of landed exportable prawn/fish were re-assessed. Efficacy of such measures to improve the situation were monitored for sixteen months. Awareness in terms of benefit of good practices was high in factory technicians. Other stakeholders had very shallow or poor knowledge on use of improved handling and processing of fish. Participatory tools employed in this study was found to be effective in developing awareness of stakeholders in different value chains of wet fish handling and distribution and reducing post-harvest loss.

The present study was designed to know the landing and distribution pathways of fish and types and nature of stakeholders involved in fish distribution chain in Bangladesh. A total of 237 fish landing centers and 5440 markets were detected. The number of landing center and market were highest in Chittagong and Dhaka division respectively. Stakeholders in fish distribution, viz., arotdars, paikers and retailers were found to be 6219, 39506 and 122922, respectively. A 84.71% of the landing centers were found to be operated year round while 15.29% were seasonal. The major fish production zones and major gateways of the country where inland capture and culture and marine capture fish landed were identified. In any locality 62.83% of the landed fish were transported within 100 km area and 5.73% of fish were transported beyond 500 km. The quantity of fish harvested from river, beel, Kaptai lake floodplain, pond, baor, coastal area/sea and shrimp/prawn farm were 5.25, 4.41, 0.13, 35.03, 38.22, 0.23, 10.93 and 5.80%, respectively. The common constraints identified were lack of adequate infrastructure facilities in the landing center and market, unhygienic environment, influence of middlemen, money lending at high rate etc. For the betterment of fish landing and distribution, appropriate authority should pay proper attention so that both quality and fair price are ensured.

The present study was conducted to investigate the milk quality from different genotype. A total 48 dairy cows belong to different genotypes such as Holstein cross, Jersey cross, Sahiwal cross and Red Chittagong were selected. Milk compositional viz. specific gravity, Acidity test, Fat test, Protein test, Solids-not-fat (SNF) test and total solids (TS) test were carried out. It was observed that the higher specific gravity of milk was obtained from Jersey cross and Red Chittagong genotype, which was significantly higher (P<0.01) than the other genotype of dairy cows. The highest acidity (%) was observed (0.165±0.014) in Red Chittagong and the lowest acidity (0.118±0.025) in Sahiwal cross. The highest fat (%) was observed from Red Chittagong cows milk which was statistically higher from Jersey cross and Sahiwal cross and the lowest fat (%) was found in the milk of Holstein cross cows. The highest SNF value was obtained from Jersey cross and the lowest from Sahiwal cross. On the other hand, Holstein cross and Red Chittagong was nearly similar. Red Chittagong milk sample showed the highest TS value and the lowest value was observed from Holstein cross. The highest protein value was found from Red Chittagong and the lowest from Holstein cross but the protein content of other two genotypes were nearly similar. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjas.v37i1.9868 BJAS 2008; 37(1): 53-56

As a very common feature of fish marketing, small-scale fisheries in tropical countries suffers from huge post-harvest loss every year. A method was proposed to quantify the post-harvest quality loss of wet fish using sensory based assessment tool. The assessments were conducted on four fish species (rohu Labeo rohita; Ilish Tenualosa ilisha, catfish Pangasius sutchi and tilapia Oreochromis niloticus) in different steps of major distribution channels in Bangladesh for a year. Sensory quality defect point data were standardized with corresponding biochemical and microbiological quality parameters through interval estimate based on regression analysis, where a “near to actual” sensory quality breaking point was found to be DP 3.3. High value of goodness of fit 2 R indicated a highly fitted regression model for all the fishes tested, with highly significant (p<0.01) estimated regression coefficients. Percent quality loss of fish at each step of distribution channel was determined using DP 3.3, constructing a (1-?) confidence interval for average percentage of defective fish. The loss assessment study indicated that fish did not lose quality during handling by the fishermen, and fish farmers or at landing centers and primary fish markets, except fresh T. ilisha destined for consumer market. While, T. ilisha used for salting during glut catch suffered substantial loss. Most of the quality losses were initiated at the transporters and commission agents, from 4% in P. sutchi to 11% in O. niloticus. When fish come to retailers, a 16% loss was recognized in L. rohita and O. niloticus, but 7% in P. sutchi and 9% in T. ilisha. Higher loss was observed in fish vendors, from 10% - 19%. Considering the retailers as the end-point stake in the fish distribution chain, study revealed the range of fish quality loss was 7-16% in four major consumed species in Bangladesh. The method was further validated in assessing the quality of 24 other major commercial fish species in different seasons and locations country-wide for two consecutive years and found identical results. The results suggest that the new method can be applied to any fish in quantifying the qualitative loss.SAARC J. Agri., 13(1): 75-89 (2015)