23/11/2022
PhD School of SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN
Preliminary PhD Plan
1. General information
Name PhD student:
Hossain Mohammad Sabbir
KU ID:
ckl378
ORCID no.:
0000-0002-4843-1251
Citizenship:
Bangladesh
2. Supervisors
Principal Supervisor:
Rasmus Nielsen
Co-supervisor:
3. Department and Name and Category of Employment
Department/center:
Department of Food and Resource Economics
Name of place of employment:
Department of Finance and banking,Patuakhali Science and Technology University
Category of place of employment:
Abroad
4. Start date and expected end date
Start date:
16/12/2022
Expected end date:
15/12/2025
5. PhD Programme
PhD Programme:
5+3 PhD programme
Sub category:
Please choose
Sub category:
Please choose
Sub category:
Please choose
Sub category:
Please choose
Full/Part-time:
Full-time
Working hours per week:
Only relevant for 3+5 programme
Name of MSc programme:
Passed ECTS (at enrolment date):
End date of MSc programme:
0.0
6. Collaboration
Collaboration type:
Please choose
Collaboration partner:
Collaboration partner:
Collaboration partner:
7. Credit transfer
Credit transfer:
No
How many months:
0
Motivation:
8. Bachelor's degree
Title and discipline:
Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Banking
University:
Patuakhali Science and Technology University
Country:
Bangladesh
Grade point average:
3.739
Standard programme duration:
4
Date of graduation:
08/06/2015
9. Master's degree
Title and discipline:
MBA in Finance
Grade point average:
3.914
University:
Patuakhali Science and Technology University
Country:
Bangladesh
Standard programme duration:
1
Date of graduation:
31/10/2016
10. Not MSc
Other credentials if not MsC:
11. Working title
Working title:
Economics of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies: Salt intrusion in prawn farming
12. Description of the PhD project
Justification and Background of the Study
The fisheries sub-sector is an important source of GDP, employment, nutrition, foreign earning and rural economic growth in Bangladesh. The sector
employs around 1.2 million people (Yasmin et al. 2013 and Ghose, B., 2014) and contributes around 4% to the GDP and 27% to agricultural sector's
contribution (DOF, 2016) .In addition, prawn and shrimp is the second-largest source of export earnings after ReadyMade Garments (RMGs) (Karim
et al.2019). However, prawn production has been fluctuating and export has been declining during 2011 to 2018, followed by a declining trend in the
future (Figure 1). There are many factors contributing to this declining trend (Ahmed et al. 2017, Nupur, 2010) including the factors, which are
manageable by improving management practices (managerial inefficiency) and others (salinity intrusion and disease) require improved technological
intervention.
Furthermore, the prawn industry of Bangladesh has two major challenges for further growth. First, the production has a significant greenhouse gas
(GHG) emission resulted from organic matter from uneaten feeds, prawn debris, or dead phytoplankton accumulates (Ahamed et al., 2014). This
organic matter is degraded by bacteria at a high rate of O2 expenditure and CO2 production, and adverse conditions occur at the bottom of the
ponds due to high bacterial activity (Bastviken et al., 2008). Second, the prawn production is affected by saline water intrusion due to the sea level
rise caused by climate change. Increased salinity causes high mortality, reduces prawn growth and farm income. It is because higher salinity in
prawn farm increases physiological stress resulting from the loss of energy,depletion of protein and lipid reserve limiting the growth of prawn
(Moreira et al., 1983). It also causes disease in farmed prawn, particularly viral and bacterial infections (Ahmed et al., 2017). Furthermore, mangrove
degradation and deforestation have an adverse impact on prawn farming ( Paul & Vogl, 2011), which is more in Bangladesh because most of the
prawn farms are located in coastal and mangrove areas. There are literature’s such as (Silfiana et al 2018, Boyd et al 2020) suggesting different
strategies for addressing the above challenges like Integrated Multi Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA), which could be used to minimize organic and
inorganic waste as a unique and advanced approach in prawn farms (Ahmed et al, 2016). IMTA can play a dual role: first, it reduces the emission
from the farm itself (Ahmed 2013) and help to protect against the adverse effect of mangrove degradation, sedimentation and lessen the feed cost,
which ensures healthier ecosystems. Besides, In order to counteract the environmental burden, some prawn farmers have turned to probiotics
around the world (Peñalosa-Martinell et al 2019). Previous literatures including Van Hai et al. (2010), Lakshmi et al. (2013) suggest that probiotics
can significantly reduce the prawn diseases induced by salinity, particularly viral and bacterial infections. Probiotics improves the digestion and
immune responses of shrimp, while inhabiting the infectious bacteria and improving water quality and prawn growth (Farzanfar, A. 2006). The
traditional antibiotics have reduced efficacy against multidrug resistant bacteria, thus vaccination is not feasible. In addition to probiotic bacteria,
introducing phages (Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria) can control the bacterial contaminations in prawn ponds. Therefore, applying
phages to the culture water could be an effective and inexpensive approach reducing the negative impact of vibriosis in larviculture (Silva,Y., 2014).
The proposed research aims at empirically examine the current and future challenges of prawn industry with critical economic evaluation of cutting
edge of production technologies that have been proven successful elsewhere.
Research Questions and Objectives of the study
The aim of this project is to examine the Economic feasibility and farm efficiency by innovative prawn farming solutions that minimize GHG
emissions and alleviate adverse effects from salinity intrusions and to accomplish the aim of project it lead me to draw followings research questions:
1. What are the impacts of improved farming practices (i.e., IMTA, and probiotics) reducing GHG emission on performances of prawn farm of various
size, scale and space?
2. What are the impacts of salinity mitigation strategies on farm performances?
3. Are there any regulatory challenges and potentials of improved farming practices?
The above research questions lead me to the following specific objectives:
1. To examine the cost and benefits of IMTA and adopting Probiotics in prawn farming taking into account the scale of operation and the farmer’s
ability to implement the proposed GHG emission reduction measures.
2. To examine how different salinity mitigation and adaptation strategies affect the farms’ productivity, efficiency and risk in a varying environment
and farming practices.
3. To examine the externalities of existing and potential technologies and evaluate existing and possible policy provisions regulating environmental
externalities of the recommended technologies.
Data Sources and Methodology of the Study
Data
The data will be collected from primary and secondary sources. The primary data will be collected from prawn farmers of the southwest region
(Bagerhat, Sathkhira, and Khulna) in Bangladesh. The selected farmers will be interviewed face-to-face using a validated and structured interview
schedule to generate farm-level economic data before after the technological intervention. The data will include information on inputs costs i.e. (land,
labour, feed, and capital) and prawn quantity, growth, and production will be considered as output. The secondary sources like Department of
Fisheries (DOF), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and published articles may be used if needed. This research will actively participate with
other WPs for getting related biological information of prawn farming. The data will be controlled and tested using formal and informal techniques
such as enterprise budgeting, scatter plotting, calculating ratios, return on land, gross margin, and cross-checking variables to identify outliers or
incorrect data.
Methods
There are proven methodologies in earlier literatures (Khan et al 2021, Rahman et al 2019, Fussel 2010) for examining performance and impact of
improved technology .The proposed study will follow those methodologies by modifying based on the context of the proposed research. Therefore,
methodologies like Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), Difference and Difference (DID), Propensity Score Model (PSM),Stochastic Fointer Analysis (SFA),
Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) may be useful to examine the economic feasibility of proposed
technologies and for comparing the farm performance with existing and proposed technologies. A Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) can be used to
determine the economic viability of proposed technique in prawn farming. The CBA methodology involves calculating in monetary terms all the costs
and benefits of an adaptation option where, Net Benefit= V-F, V and F are the sums of expected discounted streams of benefits and costs. CBA has
been used to analyze agricultural adaptations at both global and national level (Bruin et al., 2009). While CBA is a useful tool for policy making for
adaptation, it may not be applicable when costs and benefits cannot be reflected in monetary terms, such as bio-ecological impacts. Bio-economic
model widely used to overcome these problems. It is useful tool for anticipating the outcomes of policies and technologies before their
implementation but when all the information is not available it can be complex to measure with this model. Both CBA and the Bio economic model
will give us an indication of the economic feasibility of improved technology.
However, DID and PSM can be useful to measure the impact of proposed technology on firm performance. The differences of consequences of
existing (traditional) and improved (use of IMTA and probiotics) farming practices on farm performance, local environment, society and economy can
be measured by DID and PSM methods.
DID and PSM are doing the same thing. However, DID is more useful for comparing baseline and end line data, which means PSM may not be used
for comparing the impacts of performance over the time.
SFA is a commonly used method for analyzing efficiency and productivity, which assumes a functional relationship between inputs and outputs. It is
easy to apply and gives consistent estimates of the parameters when data is well defined and have less possibility of measurement errors and bias.
Alternative to SFA, DEA can be useful tool when the possibility of information biasness and measurement error is high. In Bangladesh, most of the
agricultural farms mainly prawn’s farms are small scale and farmers are not well educated so farming data may not be well defined and organized.
SEM can be used to measure the direct impact of social and environmental externalities and also regulatory barriers. In SEM there will be two
dependent variables but the same set of .Following earlier literatures such as Fan, Y. et al. (2006) and Mardani, A. et al. (2017) use this model to
examine social and environmental externalities.
13. Startup seminar
Activity
Start date
End date
Progress
Startup seminar (to be planned) *
22/09/2022
22/09/2022
Completed
14. Change of scientific environment
Institution
Country
Start date
End date
Department of Food and Resource
Economics,University of
Copenhagen
DK Denmark
01/01/2023
01/05/2023
15. Knowledge dissemination and/or teaching activities
Activity
Contribution
Number of hours
Teaching Assistant in the class
Guidance of students and correction pf papers
10
16. Suggested ECTS
Summed suggested ECTS:
5.5
17. PhD Course Portfolio
Title of course
Link to database
ECTS suggested
Introduction to University Pedagogy
3.0
Responsible Conduct of Research (generic course) 1 An
Introduction
(The course, new or old version, is mandatory for all
students).
1.5
Responsible Conduct of Research 2: Getting Ready for
Submission of Manuscripts and Thesis
(The course is mandatory for all students enrolled from
1.08.2020)
1.0
18. Agreement on the form and extent of supervision
Supervisors will make themselves available continuously in the office or through other channels, such as, telephone, email and Skype. Supervisors
will meet the PHD student – at least monthly or more frequently on critical phases of the project, such as, data collection and design, writing and
analysis. The PHD student will set the agenda if necessary and send materials for the supervisors to read. The supervisors bring competences to
the table and supervise jointly whenever possible. The principal supervisor is responsible for administrative aspects jointly with the PHD student.
19. Running costs
The research project:
0
PhD Courses:
0
Change of environment:
0
20. Agreement on intellectual property rights (e.g. patents)
Not relevant
21. Financing of the study: salary and running costs
Financing part 1
Start date:
End date:
Name of grant donor:
% of the expense for the entire study:
0.00
Unit number and sub-statement:
0
Alias and/or KU-spec:
Amount of expenses in DKK:
0
Financing information
Financing part 2
Start date:
End date:
Name of grant donor:
% of the expense for the entire study:
0.00
Unit number and sub-statement:
0
Alias and/or KU-spec:
Amount of expenses in DKK:
Financing information
Financing part 3
Start date:
0
End date:
Name of grant donor:
% of the expense for the entire study:
0.00
Unit number and sub-statement:
0
Alias and/or KU-spec:
Amount of expenses in DKK:
0
Financing information
Financing part 4
Start date:
End date:
Name of grant donor:
% of the expense for the entire study:
0.00
Unit number and sub-statement:
0
Alias and/or KU-spec:
Amount of expenses in DKK:
0
Financing information
22. The 3 most important subjects of the PhD project for Statistics Denmark
#1:Subject code:
Please choose
%
#2:Subject code:
Please choose
%
#3:Subject code:
Please choose
%
23. Research areas for Statistics Denmark
Research area
Pct of total research time
Interdisciplinary research
Climate
Energy
Environment
Bio-technology
Food products incl. food safety
Cancer
Nanoscience
ICT
Cyber and information security
Robotics and/or drone technology
Integration
Democracy
Welfare
Gender research
Psychiatry
Transportation
Globalization
Experience economy and tourism
Prevention and health promotion
24. Comments
Student's comments:
Supervisor's comments:
I think if I get an admission opportunity in UCPH it will help me to explore
my knowledge in my relevant field and I will get a direction on how to
conduct research in a varying environment.
PhD coordinator's comments:
Responsible for finance's comments:
Hiring manager/Head of department's comments:
PhD administration's comments:
Chair of PhD committee's comments:
Head of PhD School's comments: