Report March - August 2002: Semi-annual progress report

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Executive Summary

The WorldFish Center is implementing the project "Strategies and Options for Increasing and Sustaining Fisheries and Aquaculture Production to Benefit the Poor Households in Asia'' with financial support from the Asian Development Bank under the Regional Technical Assistance for the "Fifth Agriculture and Natural Resources Research at CGIAR Centers" (ADB-RETA 5945). The Project is being implemented in nine developing member countries (DMCs) of ADB, namely Bangladesh, People's Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, for a three-year period (March 2001 - February 2004).

The Project has been working on five inter-related research components.

Component 1 - Profile of Key Aquaculture Technologies and Fishing Practices
Component 2 - Analysis of Policies, Institutions, Infrastructure and Support
                      Services to Fisheries and Aquaculture
Component 3 - Socioeconomic Profile of Major Stakeholders (Producers,
                      Consumers, Traders) in Fisheries and Aquaculture
Component 4 - Analysis of Fish Supply and Demand and Projections
Component 5 - National Action Plan

Since the Project's inception in March 2001, WorldFish has submitted three reports: 1) a Progress Report (March - June 2001) in June 2001, 2) a Project Inception Report (March - August 2001) in October 2001 and 3) a Semi-Annual Report (September 2001 - February 2002) in April 2002. The draft Semi-annual Progress Report for the period of February to August 2002 was informally submitted to the Bank on 8 October 2002 for comments.

This revised Semi-annual Progress Report, with incorporation of comments received from the Bank, highlights the progress of activities and accomplishments of the Project for the period 1st March to 31st August 2002. The Project accomplished significant progress during the reporting period in terms of collecting and reviewing secondary information, conducting field surveys and appraisal, analysis of data, providing training to scientists from participating DMCs and conducting workshops as outlined in the schedule of the Project document.

The activities for Components 1 and 2 are almost complete. The DMCs, with technical guidance from experts from the WorldFish Center, reviewed all existing information and available data in their respective countries required for Components 1 and 2. Preliminary analyses were presented during the Inception Workshop on 21-24 August 2001 at WorldFish Headquarters in Penang, Malaysia. Experts at WorldFish reviewed these documents, provided comments and suggestions for improvement. Based on these comments, the national teams of participating DMCs, except for Sri Lanka, have revised and submitted these reports. The WorldFish experts have prepared synthesis reports on policies, institutions and support services; socioeconomic and technological profiles of freshwater aquaculture; status and technological profiles of brackish-water aquaculture; and the technology profiles of inland and marine capture fisheries. Some important results from the reports are provided below.

Small-scale farmers with predominant dependence on rice farming dominate the freshwater aquaculture in ponds, cages/pens, paddy fields and ditches. Polyculture in ponds is the common method of fish farming except for Indonesia and the Philippines, where monoculture in running water and cages is important. Pond operators in all the member countries apply fertilizer and feeds, although these vary in type and quantity. The Chinese and Thai farmers use feed and other inputs in larger quantity than those in other countries of the region. Analysis reveals that a semi-intensive form of aquaculture is most suitable for freshwater fish farmers in Asia.

Shrimp, mollusk and marine fish are the major species cultured in a brackish-water environment. However, shrimp is the predominant species in most of the Asian countries. Most of the shrimp farming is carried out in ponds in coastal areas utilizing brackish or marine water drawn from estuarine areas or directly from the sea. In addition, shrimp culture in cages and indoor-running water systems have been tested in China. For the marine environment, the technology varies according to the species being cultured, namely shellfish (such as oysters, mussels and cockles), finfish (such as grouper, sea bass, milkfish, barramundi, and snapper) and seaweed. For shellfish culture, a raft-and-rack method is commonly adopted in India, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam. Finfish are mostly reared in floating net cages and fixed pen enclosures. Marine capture fisheries in Asia consist of pelagic fish (39.9%), fish n.e.i. (not easily identified) (21.3%), demersal fish (14%), crustaceans (9.9%), cephalopods (5.5%) and mollusks (5.2%).

Every country in the region is aware of the strength of the fishery sector in their economy with regard to its positive contribution to improve nutrition and food security, and the elimination of poverty, especially of fishers and farmers. Policies have been formulated in that direction, and the countries that are lacking such policies are trying to develop policies. In most cases, insufficient or/and inefficient institutional design and financial constraints impede implementation of the policies. Therefore, mere policy is not enough for fishery sector development, rather the governments need to provide appropriate institutional arrangements.

Component 3 of the project includes some elements of primary data generation, which will also be required for analyses and projections of fish supply and demand (Component 4). Good progress in implementing the activities for Component 3 has been achieved in all the participating countries, including Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, in spite of delays in signing the Memorandum of Agreement for the first two countries and a change of team leader in Sri Lanka. A field visit by WorldFish staff facilitated the implementation of Component 3 in these three countries by providing clear directions and ways to speed up the activities.

Component 4 of the project is also progressing as expected. An Asian fish sector model has been developed, which is being followed by the participating DMCs in developing country-specific fish sector models. Preliminary fish demand elasticities have been estimated for Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand. Work is in progress on the estimation of fish supply elasticities. Collaborators in this component visited WorldFish HQ during the months of June - August (Dr Somying Piumsombon and Ms Nartaya Srichantuk of Thailand on 3-8 June; Dr Yolanda T. Garcia of the Philippines on 19-24 June; and Dr Sonny Koeshendrajana of Indonesia on 7-13 August). The collaborators together with the Project team at WorldFish discussed the work and jointly processed their data. The visits also served as a training workshop for the collaborators.

Based on the findings of the first four components, country-specific strategies and options for increasing and sustaining fisheries and aquaculture production to benefit poor households in Asia will be developed. A tentative plan has been worked out as to how results of the research can be disseminated and incorporated into the national policies.

Two special international workshops were organized to present the preliminary results of the project. These sessions were a) "Strategies and Options for Sustainable Aquaculture in Asia" during the World Aquaculture Society (WAS) Conference on 23-27 April 2002, Beijing, China and b) "Fish in Food Security and Income in Developing Countries: Role of Growing Aquaculture and Changing Trade Regime" in the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET) Conference on 19-22 August, Wellington, New Zealand. During the WAS Conference, ten research papers on technology, aquaculture and fisheries policies, and on fish sector modeling were presented while nine research papers on supply, demand and trade of fish in developing countries were discussed during the IIFET Conference.

The government and national scientists of the participating DMCs are providing necessary support. The project team at WorldFish does not foresee any issue that will hamper the smooth implementation of the Project activities. The planned project activities are expected to be completed as scheduled.

 View the previous inception report

Contact Person
Dr. Mahfuzuddin Ahmed
Project Coordinator, ADB-RETA 5945
Program Leader
Policy Research And Impact Assessment
The WorldFish Center
Jalan Batu Maung, Batu Maung
11960 Bayan Lepas, Penang
Malaysia
Telephone: +60 4 - 626 1606 ext 420
Fax: +60 4 - 626 5530
E-mail: m.ahmed@cgiar.org