This manual provides guidelines for attaining better practices in culture-based fisheries, an emerging practice in rural areas in the Asian region. It deals with the principles of culture-based fishery practices, primarily based on relatively long-term experiences in Sri Lanka and Vietnam. It deals with the gross factors that are applicable to improving fish yields and therefore revenue; and sustaining culture based fisheries as a development activity in the long-term.

A series of leaflets on better management practices for Penaeus monodon shrimp aquaculture in Vietnam. The leaflets are available in both Vietnamese and English and cover: Broodstock management for suppliers, postlarvae selection and transportation for seed traders, shrimp seed quality, pond preparation, good pond management, shrimp health management.

In this issue:

NACA Governing Council endorses new work programme, elects Sena De Silva as next Director General. RapiDot Kit - Farmer friendly kit for WSSV detection. Regional mariculture program strengthened. Economics and marketing analysis of the live reef fish food trade in the Asia-Pacific. Workshop on molecular techniques in aquaculture and seafood safety, Mangalore, India. Better-practice approaches for culture-based fisheries development in Asia. High-level Bahrain fisheries deletation visits Iran. First monthly meeting of fish farmers at One-stop Aqua Shop in Punjab Pakistan. Fish breeding training program for farmers of OAS, Kaipara. Provincial workshops on National Fisheries Policy and Strategy Framework held in Punjab and Sindh, Pakistan. Monitoring and evaluating the impacts of aquaculture on the agency and well-being of women. STREAM welcomes AYAD volunteer. Workshop to strengthen aquatic animal health capacity and biosecurity in ASEAN. Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture (AFITA) 2006 in Bangalore. Aquaculture rehabilitation project launched by Indonesian Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

Our better-practice guidelines are an attempt to share lessons that are learnt from local practice or from research, with many more people within Asia-Pacific and to enable people, institutions and policy-makers to use new tools and mechanisms which support aquatic resources management in ways that benefit the livelihoods of people who are poor. This publication is also available in Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Hindi, Ilonggo, Khmer, Myanmar, Nepali, Oriya, Sinhala, Urdu and Vietnamese.

Self-help groups are a way to start working that helps to build up the social connections which people find useful in support of their livelihoods objectives, helping people to agree on things and to speak together, giving people a stronger voice in decision-making and in negotiating with more powerful forces. This publication is also available in Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Hindi, Ilonggo, Khmer, Myanmar, Nepali, Oriya, Sinhala, Urdu and Vietnamese.