An important driver of the Bangladeshi economy, the fish farming industry has grown 25-fold in three decades, with farmers having little cause to rely on NGO and goverment support. Until just over a decade ago, rural fish farmers usually sold their fish to local traders; now they are selling two-thirds of their product to large wholesalers based in towns and cities, a study has found.Calling its transformation a quiet revolution, researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute (Ifpri) found that three quarters of fish farmers now sell their fish commercially. Their investigation also showed there there has been an equally rapid shift among consumers eating fish from home ponds to purchasing farmed fish from markets. What really surprised me about these findings, said Ricardo Hernandez, research co-ordinator at Ifpri and lead author of the study, was the extent of the growth in many sectors, not just in production but also in many off-farm segments, such as rural and urban traders, input dealers and feed mills. The rapid increase in mainly small and medium actors has produced a more competitive environment that has pushed the adoption of new technologies, which has increased productivity. This has greatly benefitted poor and low-income consumers. This growth has come from increased demand, as well as from improvements in technology, communications and infrastructure. Investments by millions of farm households and small and medium enterprises have also had a considerable impact. Very little change was brought about by NGO or government action, however, though the Dhaka government did play an important role in the early stages of development through infrastructure investments, such as in fish seed production, electricity and roads. It also fostered a pro-business outlook, as well as a laissez-faire approach to land use and crop choice, Hernandez believes. What was once a subsistence enterprise in Bangladesh has seen a tripling of volume and players in all segments. There has been a proliferation of feed mills, hatcheries, farmers and traders, with a rapid increase in purchased seed and feed and fast growth in the use of chemicals. Aquaculture has become an important driver of the Bangladeshi economy, added Hernandez, The industry now employs as many persons as the garment sectoranother growing success story in the country. Rapid increases in urban consumption of farmed fish in Bangladesh mirror the trend taking place throughout Asia. This trend is particularly significant for Bangladesh, where fish is the most important food, after rice, in terms of the food budget. Both rural and urban poor households have been able to improve their diets by consuming more protein and micronutrients from a source other than rice, said Hernandez.