6.1 The harmony of the existing regional agencies in aquaculture development
6.2 Collaboration with ICLARM
6.3 Collaboration with NACA
6.4 Collaboration with SEAFDEC/AQD
6.5 Collaboration with MRC
The existing regional organizations, ICLARM, MRC, NACA and SEAFDEC, are very familiar with the situation in Asia. This familiarity must have given them certain knowledge of the socio-economic aspects of the communities, but this cannot be taken for granted. Additional expertise would still be required when a multi-sectoral programme is launched.
6.2.1 Development of integrated aquaculture-agriculture farming system indicators
6.2.2 Project in Bangladesh on the integration of aquaculture into farming systems
6.2.3 Possible programme areas for FAO-ICLARM collaboration
The programme focus to which ICLARM has devoted its effort particularly during the last decades conforms to the global development necessities. The pursuit of maximum commodity yields has not made farming sustainable, and the need to explore sustainable natural resource management practices has taken precedence.
Resource-poor farmers rarely practice aquaculture, because it is capital-intensive. The approaches advocated by ICLARM, like those advocated by FAO, are not solely to produce more fish: aquaculture makes farmers aware of the importance of water as a vital commodity - not just a natural resource - whose conservation would help promote farming efficiency and make it environmentally sustainable. The integrated-farming approach has been widely accepted as a development strategy that addresses effectively the problems of rural poverty and food security.
A farmer participatory research protocol that brings farmers and scientists together to transform existing farming systems of resource-poor farmers into integrated aquaculture-agriculture (IAA) farming systems is the aim of the ICLARM approach. This transformation process is guided by a set of sustainability indicators to ensure that the farming systems are ecologically and economically sustainable and that many resource-poor farmers can adopt them.
For years, mainly in Africa, ICLARM has evolved various research and development mechanisms to work with the rural community, mainly to empower them to combat poverty.
From 1994 under the six-year project on “Development of sustainability indicators for integrated aquaculture-agriculture farming systems”, funded by the German BMZ/GTZ with the collaboration of the University of Kassel (GHK) and national institutions in the Philippines, ICLARM developed and tested IAA sustainability indicators on small farms which led to the development of the RESTORE software.
IAA principles for integration are based on the nutrient inputs or ecological services that an activity can provide to others. The purpose of such integration is to improve income and nutrition in small farms for the more efficient use of the otherwise unused or underused farm materials. The integration also has the potential to counteract the effects of environmental degradation.
To use IAA effectively, more data on the economic, ecological and nutritional benefits will need to be gathered. Moreover, clear definitions, criteria and quantitative indicators will need to be evolved. IAA indicators also require tools to measure their ability to control the development process. The inputs from the worksite in the Philippines have been analysed by GHK personnel, and their refinements were to be available by the time the project closed down in June 1999.
In line with the main thrusts of the UN system, ACIAR* programmes through ICLARM have explored countries both in Asia and Africa to learn the people’s ways of life and the factors influencing their decisions. To help improve their income and livelihood, low-input IAA technology has been developed with the participation of farmers. ICLARM also spent nine years, from 1991, implementing the project “Integrated resource management group and development of the RESTORE software” to improve the way farmers manage their land and water resources through IAA.
* The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.The ICLARM strategy is to bring together farmers and scientists to transform existing farming systems into IAA farming systems. A set of indicators is used to ensure that the transformation process is making progress towards farming systems that are economically and ecologically sustainable. The indicators are also used to measure whether resource-poor farmers can afford to adopt the technology developed.
Last year, ICLARM released the software RESTORE version 1.0 with a revised User Manual and Field Guide. Attempts were made to evaluate the RESTORE process and software with farmers’ groups under current projects. ICLARM also conducted RESTORE training courses upon request.
Under the “Research for the development of sustainable aquaculture practices” project, ICLARM tested out the philosophy in Bangladesh. From June 1993, the seven-year project, funded by USAID in collaboration with Bangladesh fishery research institutes and nine local NGOs, developed low-external input IAA practices that fit into farming systems in Bangladesh. A flat country with a large population spread over the flat delta of three world-class river systems, Bangladesh has a number of small ponds which were dug in the process of earth removal, primarily for elevating the homestead. The year-round supplies of fish from the vast natural habitats, the lack of aquaculture technology and input, the intensive capital input of aquaculture, and the volatile market situation could be the reasons for an estimated 59 000 ponds to lie derelict or underused since they were created. The project’s investigations include feeding grass carp with grasses and duckweed (Azolla spp.) and exploratory cage culture of grass carp in the Hail Hoar, a large floodplain in North-eastern Bangladesh.
The contribution of aquaculture to economic development in terms of massive production of fish and shellfish that add to the world’s food supplies is well supported both by its rationale and by vested interest in many sectors. Its contributions to food security, rural livelihood, and poverty reduction are widely recognized.
For aquaculture to contribute to poverty reduction is not easy. ICLARM, after more than a decade, is compiling field data to evolve workable technical models which it aims to replicate in other parts of the world. Not overly optimistic, it is well aware that the wide diversity in cultures and traditions as well as in stages of development would make outright replication difficult, technically speaking. With the strong funding support and the reputation of the organization, ICLARM should be able to do a good job in evolving workable development models that small farmers in different parts of the world will accept. The diverse and versatile nature of aquaculture renders it a flexible development component of farming systems almost anywhere. It also has the vocation to be used for water conservation.
The fact is that sound technical inputs would not be easily adopted unless a supportive political, sociological and economic atmosphere prevailed. A sectoral approach like aquaculture development may be too narrow to influence easily prevailing socio-economic and political conditions. Wherever the situation is not ripe, the technical approach would go to waste.
The programme situations in some Asian countries have become suitable for trying out the IAA and integrated resource management (IRM) development models of ICLARM. China has a long tradition of aquaculture and small farmers have long practised the integrated farming approach. In the Ninth Five Year Plan and the Long-Term Objectives for the Year 2010 on Land and Water Conservation, China attaches great importance to the land and water conservation projects of the seven largest river valleys. In 1998, China revised the Land Administration Law to give the power to the Ministry of Land and Resources to administer land use. The decentralized administrative system in China should also make it conducive to the ICLARM approach.
Vietnam’s experiment on the farming systems network brings the multi-disciplinary approach to different farming situations in rural areas. This experiment should complement the ICLARM experience in Bangladesh and Malawi.
Vietnam has a wealth of experience in on-farm participatory research programmes, particularly under IDRC assistance, which can be used in planning a new programme. Since 1990, the Vietnam Farming Systems Network (VNFSN), a consortium of nine agricultural universities and research institutes, has received assistance from IDRC to carry out a nationwide on-farm participatory research programme. According to Vo-Tong Xuan (1998), VNFSN involves 111 scientists in its work. At each institution a multi-disciplinary research group was formed. Members of the group consisted of scientists, faculty members, researchers, research assistants, extension workers, and others, who came from various institutions and backgrounds. The group promoted approaches and methods in farming system research and extension methods. This approach was instrumental in setting research priorities and in the development of appropriate agricultural systems that are economically and environmentally sustainable. There were 28 research sites over six different agro-ecological zones.
The new Constitution of Thailand has created sub-district councils, which are legally empowered to exercise control over the natural resources within their jurisdiction. Although the decentralization has been a result of a long political struggle, the sub-districts may not be quite ready to shoulder this new and complex responsibility. The ICLARM IAA and IRM would be the kind of natural resource management that meet their needs.
What can FAO do to facilitate the fielding of the ICLARM IAA and IRM activities to compile the various experiences that different cultures and geographical locations can generate? FAO may give technical and financial support to a consultation involving a team of experts in various disciplines, including aquaculture, and target these countries for the advocacy. The consultation has added to the FAO experience, such as in the Aquatic Resource Management for Local Communities programme and in the outcome from the discussion held in Chiang Rai, Thailand, in 1999.
NACA started as an FAO/UNDP regional project in 1980 and was transformed into an autonomous regional organization in 1990. At present, NACA is supported by 14 members and 6 participating governments. Its mandate is to promote the expansion of regional aquaculture to increase food production, improve rural income and employment, diversify farm production and increase foreign exchange earnings and savings.
The NACA study on fish health management enumerating the loss of fish farming through disease provides the first evidence of a strong link between disease and environmental factors; thereby fish health management capability in the region was strengthened. NACA also played a pivotal role in the impact assessment of aquaculture on the environment, and the formulation of policy and development of management systems to promote sustainable aquaculture.
In contrast to shrimp aquaculture, NACA promotes resource-efficient aquaculture through its regional centres in China and India, which aim to benefit resource-poor rural communities. Its strategy to promote aquaculture for rural development can contribute to food security and rural poverty alleviation.
Through technical cooperation among developing countries and collaboration with other international and regional organizations, NACA is capable of mobilizing national expertise and institutional support to implement regional projects that complement or strengthen the national capabilities in a particular field. To facilitate on-farm research and technology transfer, NACA has a plan to establish a regional aqua-farmers’ network in order to field its activities.
FAO can cooperate with NACA in a number of ways as it has been doing in the past. The regional networks that NACA is operating can serve as efficient channels in mobilizing expertise and disseminating information.
The Aquaculture Department of SEAFDEC has been implementing its programme of regionalization of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishery to encourage SEAFDEC and ASEAN member countries to adopt, with some regional adjustments, the code under its Article 9 on aquaculture development. FAO is obliged to assist in this area, since the promotion of the code of conduct is a core FAO mandate.
The SEAFDEC department of aquaculture is implementing a coastal aquaculture project aiming to advocate new, environment-friendly methods of shrimp aquaculture. The department has established pilot projects at a site in Haiphong, Vietnam, and one in Thailand in collaboration with the Department of Fisheries. FAO could continue to provide it with the relevant expertise, particularly on environmental matters.
The Aquaculture Department has cooperated with the SEAFDEC Secretariat during the past several months in the organization of a “Regional conference on fishery in the new millennium - Fish for the people”, to be held tentatively in October 2001 in Bangkok. According to the decision given at the last programme committee meeting in November 2000, SEAFDEC will continue to implement the 2001 programme at its current level. The millennium conference is expected to evolve a declaration and a strong programme for SEAFDEC to implement over five years, starting 2002. The involvement of FAO in the SEAFDEC new programmes would only be possible after they have been unveiled. However, there should be programme opportunities in the new five-year plan of SEAFDEC for FAO to work with the Aquaculture Department in aquaculture.
Collaboration with the Mekong River Commission should benefit development agencies in their human resource development and programme contribution, given the fact that the Mekong River basin has assembled the multi-disciplinary challenges that have been brought under the administrative and development umbrella of the commission. All core programmes of MRC relate to the use and sharing of water. MRC has also provided a stage for international cooperation: since 1995 external donors have been active, and the contributions by the riparian countries in financial or technical aspects would be established for the equitable and sustained benefit of all.
