Improving Aquaculture

The latest news in aquaculture research from the WorldFish Centre

The list below is only a few of the WorldFish Center recent publications. Please visit www.worldfishcenter.org for access to a complete database of publications.

Kassam, L. ; Subasinghe, R. ; Phillips, M. 2011.
Aquaculture farmer organizations and cluster management: concepts and experiences. FAO fisheries and aquaculture technical paper 563. FAO, Rome. 90 p.

Small-scale aquaculture producers in developing countries are facing new opportunities and challenges related to market liberalization, globalization and increasingly stringent quality and safety requirements for their products, making it harder for them to access markets. Collective action through participation in farmers’ organizations (FOs) can provide an effective mechanism to assist small-scale producers overcome these challenges and contribute to and influence modern market chains and trade. Literature on agriculture and aquaculture FOs and case studies of successful aquaculture FOs were reviewed and field research on successful aquaculture FOs in India and Thailand was undertaken to bring together current knowledge on the formation, operation and impact of aquaculture FOs. A range of FOs was examined and potential opportunities for success such as “cluster management” and group certification were highlighted. The publication presents factors associated with successful FOs and guiding principles for development organizations that wish to support aquaculture FOs in developing countries, followed by a summary of challenges and opportunities for the development of small-scale aquaculture FOs.

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Belton, B. ; Little, D.C. 2011.
Contemporary visions for small scale aquaculture. p. 151-172. In: Chuenpagdee, R. (ed.) World small-scale fisheries: contemporary vision. Eburon Academic, the Netherlands.

This chapter discusses the importance of small scale aquaculture in supporting livelihoods and alleviating poverty. Similar to capture fisheries, this sector faces challenges related to globalized trade, production regulation and climate variability that threaten its future. This essay considers ‘small-scale aquaculture’ (SSA) from a variety of perspectives. It first examines the origins and usage of the term and offer a definition based on the social characteristics of those who practice it. It then examines drivers of contemporary SSA, the various roles that SSA plays in supporting agrarian livelihoods and its relationship to wellbeing and poverty with references to examples drawn from across Asia. The challenges and opportunities presented to small-scale producers and culture systems are assessed, and the likely future of small-scale aquatic production systems is discussed.

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Karim, M. ; Little, D.C. ; Kabir, M.S. ; Verdegem, M.J.C. ; Telfer, T. ; Wahab, M.A. 2011.
Enhancing benefits from polycultures including tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) within integrated pond-dike systems: A participatory trial with households of varying socio-economic level in rural and peri-urban areas of Bangladesh. Aquaculture 314(1/4): 225-235.

Linkages between the fish ponds and surrounding land for horticulture are a distinctive feature of farming households in Bangladesh. It was hypothesised that integration of fish ponds in integrated farming system enhances livelihoods and reduces poverty. The effects of introducing tilapia into existing integrated farming systems on the broader pond-dike system and associated livelihoods in rural and peri-urban settlements in central north (Mymensingh District) of Bangladesh were evaluated. This paper describes a participatory trial with farming households aggregated by well-being (better-off and worse-off) and location (peri-urban and rural) practising integrated pond-dike farming. Outcomes were monitored over a full production cycle of a control group (1) compared to households choosing to stock Nile tilapia as an additional species within their standard polyculture systems using either the same levels (2) or enhanced levels (3) of nutrient input.

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Belton, B. ; Little, D.C. ; Le, X.S. 2011.
The social relations of catfish production in Vietnam. Geoforum 42(5): 567-577.

The growth of intensive export-oriented Pangasius catfish production in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta is unparalleled in terms of rapidity and scale by any other agricultural sector, with production climbing from a low base to more than 1 million tons in a single decade. This paper examines the effects of this remarkable change on the rural class structure in locations where catfish farming has boomed, and analyses the role of local state-society relations in mediating outcomes resulting from the integration of local actors into the global value chain. We conclude that private economic activity is deeply embedded in informal relations with the state bureaucracy in Vietnam, with the result that the expansion of catfish aquaculture has generally acted to reproduce and entrench existing class relations rather leading to a radical reconfiguration of the rural class structure.

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Barman, B.K. ; Little, D.C. 2011.
Use of hapas to produce Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.) seed in household foodfish ponds: a participatory trial with small-scale farming households in nothwest Bangladesh. Aquaculture 317(1/4): 214-222.

Production and supply of fish seed-stock are essential for the promotion of aquaculture. Traditional inland aquaculture was based on the collection of seed-stock from rivers and required the sorting and acclimatising of mixed species. Fine meshed nylon net cages ‘hapas’ have been used for this purpose for Chinese carps in China and in Bangladesh and India for Indian major carp for a long time. Hapa nursing of small fry to larger, more predator-resistant fingerlings has been the focus for intensification of aquaculture in North East Thailand and Lao PDR. This paper presents the results of an on-farm trial with farming households in NW Bangladesh over two years to assess the adoptability and performance of. hapa-based seed production.

Published: 17 Nov 2011

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