Impact of COVID-19 on Smallholder Aquaculture Farmers and Their Response Strategies: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh

Bangladesh's aquaculture sector has contributed progressively to the nation's economy over the years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has impeded fish farmers' access to markets, reduced their production and sales capacity, resulted in lower income, and increased food security vulnerability. This study assesses how COVID-19 affects smallholder fish farmers and their response strategies by employing data collected from 250 fish farmers and traders from intensive fish-growing areas of Bangladesh. The results reveal that most farmers experienced difficulty obtaining inputs, and the price of those inputs skyrocketed during the COVID-19 period, resulting in several months of decreased production and operations. As a result of COVID-19, farm gate prices for silver carp, ruhu, common carp, grass carp, and tilapia fish dropped by 25%, 23%, 23%, 22%, 23%, and 40%, respectively. On the other hand, fish feed prices were found to increase significantly. Reduced income from fish farming and other sources has triggered a significant drop in capital for farming operations and production capacity improvement, leading to food insecurity. The most common coping strategies include reduced buying from the market (vegetables, fruits, meat, milk, etc.), relying on less expensive or less preferred food, purchasing food on credit, and selling assets. Notably, due to COVID-19, a new mode of marketing has evolved as an adaptation strategy in the fish marketing system, such as the use of the mobile phone (18%) and Facebook/internet to sell fish directly to the customer (16%). The sector requires short-term financial assistance to assist fish actors with production and marketing challenges. © 2023 by the authors.

Promoting agri-food systems resilience through ICT in developing countries amid COVID-19

An increasing body of literature has demonstrated COVID-19's harmful impact on agri-food systems, which are a major source of livelihood for millions of people worldwide. Information and communication technology (ICT) has been playing an increasing role in enhancing agri-food systems' resilience amid COVID-19. In this study, the PRISMA approach was employed to perform a systematic review of the literature from January 2020 to December 2021 on the overall impact of COVID-19 on agri-food system networks and ICT's role in enhancing agri-food system resilience in developing countries. This study reveals that COVID-19 has posed abundant obstacles to agri-food systems actors, including a lack of inputs, technical support, challenges to selling the product, transportation barriers, and low pricing. These impediments result in insufficient output, unforeseen stock, and revenue loss. COVID-19's restrictions have caused a significant food deficit by disrupting the demand and supply sides of the agri-food system networks. A high number of small-scale farmers have had to deal with food insecurity. As a result of the cumulative effects, actors in the agri-food system are getting less motivated to continue producing. This study also argues that many challenges in the agri-food systems can be overcome using ICTs, including maintaining precise farm management, product marketing, and access to production inputs. To assist stakeholders in coping with, adapting to, and building resilience in the agri-food system networks, this article emphasizes the critical need to turn to and expand the application of advanced agricultural ICTs to meet the world's growing needs for food production and to ensure the resilience and sustainability of farming systems, particularly in the face of a pandemic like COVID-19. Copyright © 2023 Alam, Khatun, Sarker, Joshi and Bhandari.

Leveraging Technology for Virtual Class and Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic

Online or virtual learning is a prominent educational method that takes place over the Internet as a form of distance education. Distance education has become substantially popular as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Virtual learning can play a key role in an emergency period like the COVID-19 pandemic because most of the learners have access to information and communication technologies (ICT). So, leveraging technology in education can be a potential solution in learning. This study intends to examine how digital technology can be integrated effectively for better learning and education during the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic literature review was performed using the Scopus database from 2001 to 2020. According to inclusion criteria, 26 studies were selected for qualitative analysis. In particular, four forms of technology-oriented learning systems have been revealed: electronic (e-learning), mobile (m-learning), interactive (i-learning), and ubiquitous learning (u-learning). The introduction of technology into the teaching-learning process can be an important way of developing improved learning and educational outcomes for learners and educators. In this paper, the learning models provided have the ability to exploit the associated technologies to ensure the feedback and delivery of the learning approach. The research will provide educators, teachers, policymakers, and curriculum creators with a new lens to design a better learning strategy for the learner. © 2021 IEEE.

Mobile banking during COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: A novel mechanism to change and accelerate people's financial access

Limited access to financial services is considered as a vital bottleneck for curbing poverty in Bangladesh. Digital technology such as mobile banking can contribute to accelerate people's access to finance but did not receive proper attention before COVID-19. This study intends to explore the use of mobile banking services to accelerate people's financial access in Bangladesh due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic by using secondary data. Mainly documentation techniques and descriptive statistical methods are used to collect and analyze the data. The study reveals that the number of registered mobile banking customers has escalated during the COVID-19 era. Mainly government policies regarding different mobile banking transactions such as cash in, cash out, person to person (P2P) transaction, salary and utility bill payments etc., have significantly contributed to rise the people's digital financial access during this pandemic. People's changing habit towards digital transactions has also contributed to increasing their financial access. The government should provide a convenient financial access platform to create a cashless society in the country.