Socio-economic condition and nutrient intake of riverine and marine fishing communities of Bangladesh

The study was conducted among the 205 randomly selected riverine fishermen households o f Harirampur upzilla of Manikgonj district and 97 of marine fishing households of Cox's bazar district. Data were also collected from another 100 nonfishing households of Harirampur upzilla adjacent to riverine fishing households for comparison. There was no H.S.C & above level of education among marine fishermen against 1.1 per cent and 8.2 per cent o f this level of education in riverine and nonfishing community respectively. By occupation there were 26.1 and 21.1 per cent fishermen in riverine and marine fishing community respectively. There were 59.5 per cent riverine and 46.4 per cent marine fishermen in the monthly income category of Tk. 1000-1999 against 64 per cent of the non-fishing households in the income categoiy o f Tk. 3000 and above. Per capita per day food intake was 864.4 g in marine fishermen followed by 809.2g in non-fishermen and 654.8g in riverine fishermen. Cereal intake was highest (478.34g) in riverine fishermen, 452g in marine fishermen and about 445g in non-fishermen. Per capita per day energy intake was 2111 Kcal in marine fishermen, 2101 Kcal in non-fishermen and 1927 Kcal in riverine fishermen. The overall socio-economic condition of the non-flshermen was better than both o f the riverine and marine iishermen community.