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PART I - GENERAL REPORT

REPORT OF THE TRAINING COURSE ON SHRIMP CULTURE

1. Shrimp used to be a secondary crop in brackishwater ponds where milkfish is cultured in Southeast Asian countries. This is particularly true in Indonesia and the Philippines. However, after the technological developments achieved in hatchery production of shrimp fry and the increasing international market demand for shrimps, the shift to shrimp farming became more widely practiced in brackishwater ponds.

2. In the course of the preparatory assistance to the ASEAN for the implementation of the ASEAN/UNDP/FAO Regional Small-Scale Coastal Fisheries Development Project, (RAS/84/016), training programme was given emphasis in its Work Plan for the main phase of the Project. One of the training activities identified by the participating countries was on shrimp culture. The ASEAN countries are developing their shrimp culture operations to earn foreign exchange and increase food production.

3. As the shrimp farming development continues to expand, the lack of better trained shrimp culture technicians became a felt need by most countries of the ASEAN region. In response to this need, the ASEAN/UNDP/ FAO Regional Small-Scale Coastal Fisheries Development Project organized a Training Course on Shrimp Culture to augment the skills and develop technical manpower for the expansion of shrimp farming; to develop skills of shrimp farmers in fry production.

4. A three-week training course was organized by the Project with Indonesia as the host country. The Brackishwater Aquaculture Development Center (BADC) at Jepara, Indonesia was the venue of training held from 2–19 December 1987.

5. The Director of the Centre served as the Training Course Director and eight of his staffs as instructors and service personnel for the course.

6. Of the twelve participants expected to participate in the training course, only eight were able to come due to administrative problems from their respective countries of origin. This was mainly due to the lack of time to process nomination papers and travel documents.

7. The trainees that completed the course included: Indonesia - (2); Malaysia — (2); Philippines — (1); Singapore — (1); and Thailand — (2), (Annex A).

8. The course consisted of lectures, practical work and field trips. The detailed schedule is shown in Annex B.

9. During the course, informal sessions were organized to facilitate sharing of knowledge among the participants.

10. The Project was most grateful to the host agency, the BADC, for facilitating the training course. The Indonesian training staff gave their best efforts in making the course a successful one. The participants were grateful for being given the opportunity to learn from each other, gain practical skills in shrimp farming and observe field conditions and practical farming operations in Indonesia.

11. One salient feature of the training course was the admission of private farmer participation. Two shrimp farmers took part in the course, one from Indonesia and one from Singapore. The Singapore participant is a beginner in shrimp farming and the training course gave him the practical insights and experience which are beneficial to the development of his project. Not only did he establish contacts with shrimp culture specialists in the course but also shrimp farmers as well in Indonesia with whom he can communicate directly regarding shrimp culture operations.

12. The series of lectures and practical exercises conducted in the course are found in Part II of this Training Course Report.


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