Better management practices

This manual has been prepared to assist extension officers to advise farmers on techniques for improving yields and farm income in mixed shrimp farming-mangrove forestry farming systems in the Mekong Delta. It focuses mainly on simple, common sense techniques that will allow farmers to make step-by-step improvements to production without taking unnecessary risks. The manual is based on a 6-year collaborative research and development project between the Governments of Vietnam and Australia.

This manual has been prepared to assist farmers with techniques for improving yields and farm income in mixed shrimp farming-mangrove forestry farming systems in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. It focuses mainly on simple, common sense techniques that will allow farmers to make step-by-step improvements to production without taking unnecessary risks. The techniques and recommendations covered in this manual are based on the experience of a 6-year collaborative research and development project between Vietnam and Australia.

This guide outlines a process for building capacity in participatory livelihoods approaches and carrying out livelihoods analysis. The process is about a way of working that enables development practitioners to better understand how people live and to learn how others understand their own livelihoods. This particular process emerged from experiences of working with government agencies and non-governmental organisations who themselves work with agricultural communities whose members have limited resources, in other words, poor rural fishers and farmers.

The case study for this report was conducted in the coastal village Pematang Pasir, Sumatra, Indonesia. Pematang Pasir hosts a pilot project promoting environmentally and responsible shrimp aquaculture implemented by the Indonesian Coastal Resources Management Project. This paper describes the lessons learned to date and offers strategies for community-based coastal resource management, which can be used in a broader perspective as more general guidelines for community-based and participatory development of shrimp aquaculture in marginalised coastal areas.

Shrimp farming in southern Honduras has generated considerable controversy around the issues of natural resource access and management. This case study reviews the reasons for and history of that controversy. The study relies on an extensive literature review and insights from the author’s previous research trips to southern Honduras between 1991 and 2000. In addition, representatives from several government offices, the shrimp industry, and the primary nongovernmental organisations were interviewed in May 2000.

This case study reviews shrimp aquaculture development in East Africa and the Middle East, as well as the problems and prospects for future development. Given that shrimp aquaculture development has not yet occurred on any significant scale, although increasing, it should be possible to learn the lessons from other parts of the world and apply them in these contexts. The countries in this report are: Egypt, Iran, Mozambique, Madagascar with some information on other countries in both regions.

This workshop report is an output from an additional uptake and promotion activity of the DFID NRSP Project R8363 “Enhancing Development Impact of Process Tools Piloted in Eastern India”, which was extended to the end of August 2005. It describes a Better-Practice Guidelines (BPG) Workshop which was the latest project activity to share process tools for Building Social Capital (Self-Help Groups), Consensus-Building and Information Access Surveys. Since the project began, the BPG genre has expanded from the original three concepts shared, to currently twenty-five BPGs prepared not only by STREAM but also by farmers and fish producers. The genre has also been adopted by other organisations, including the DFID-funded Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project to share rural aquaculture techniques, and Stirling University to support the uptake and promotion of their work on Self-Recruiting Species and Local Resource User Groups.

The workshop was attended by STREAM National Coordinators and Communications Hub Managers from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, and STREAM Regional Office colleagues based in Thailand, Australia and India. The participants reviewed and assessed the BPGs and Policy Briefs in Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, English, Hindi, Ilongo, Khmer, Myanmar, Nepali, Oriya, Sinhala, Urdu and Vietnamese. They also began to plan how the uptake and promotion of these tools may be specifically supported in each national context as well as planning the development of further BPG and PB topics.

This report provides details of the activities and outcomes of work conducted under the World Bank, NACA, WWF and FAO consortium program on Shrimp Farming and the Environment. The report synthesises the major findings of the consortium program from 1999-2002. It includes the outcome from a stakeholder workshop that discussed the program findings, hosted by the World Bank in Washington DC, in March 2002.

Este reporte da detalles de las actividades y resultados del trabajo conducido bajo el Programa en Consorcio del Banco Mundial, NACA, WWF y FAO sobre “Cultivo de Camarón y el Medio Ambiente”. Este reporte sintetiza los resultados más importantes del programa del consorcio desde 1999 hasta marzo de 2002. Incluye los resultados de los talleres de usuarios que discutieron los resultados del programa, auspiciados por el Banco Mundial en Washington, DC, en marzo de 2002. 

Belize Aquaculture, Ltd., has developed a superintensive shrimp aquaculture system operating in lined ponds with heavy mechanical aeration and water recirculation. The pilot study has been in progress for two years. Shrimp production has ranged from less than 8,000 kg/ha to more than 20,000 kg/ha per crop. Because the Belize Aquaculture, Ltd., production system appears to address a number of the environmental impacts of traditional shrimp aquaculture systems, a case study of this unique system was conducted.

This report reviews the state of shrimp aquaculture developent in Mexico, including its impact on employment, complexities surrounding coastal property rights, investment and health issues. Regulation and monitoring of the industry are still in their infancy, but SEMARNAP is putting in place a system that may be able to ensure that aquaculture will be sustainable. More effective involvement of the NGO community in the aquaculture sector may also help to monitor and ensure compliance with environmental regulations.

Several stakeholder groups have formulated and recommended the implementation of better management practices (BMPs)aimed at improving production efficiency and/or ameliorating impacts of shrimp farming on the environment. In this study, an economic optimisation model with an environmental component was used to evaluate the effects of five specific BMPs on the profitability, optimal selection of management strategies, and net quantities of nutrients discharged by semi-intensive shrimp farms in Honduras and small-scale operations in Honduras and Nicaragua.

Most marine fish farms in Asia still rely on what is commonly termed "trash fish". Despite it's apparent abundance and availability, there are some issues and problems related to its use in fish farming. This guide explores new and better farming practices making use of formulated feeds, as well as technical aspects of feed storage and quality control, management of feeding including weaning of groupers onto formulated feeds and economic considerations.

This case study provides (1) a description of the farming systems and management practices for mixed shrimp aquaculture-mangrove farming systems in the Mekong delta of Vietnam and (2) the findings from a detailed socio-economic study of these systems. The findings provide insight into the social and economic status of farmers involved in mixed aquaculture-mangrove farming, and the constraints associated with the adoption of management recommendations, with special consideration of the problems faced by poor farmers.

The integration of dry season shrimp farming into rice fields has raised incomes over several consecutive seasons for many farmers in the region. However, our study has revealed some key constraints that need to be addressed in order improve environmental and economic sustainability. The results of our study show that the traditional practice of recruiting native shrimp species through water exchange is not sustainable because of the attendant build-up of sedimentation on the farm.

This case study is based on a farm survey of 41 farms out of the total 340 farms in the Rushan County. The results presented in this paper highlight two main problems. The first issue revolves around labor cost statistics. The value of labor cost during the culture period forms a larger than proportionate ratio of total variable cost. The second problem lies in the high fixed cost incurred by rehabilitated farms.

This case study is based on review of existing publications/reports and stakeholder consultations. It is divided into three main sections, namely: 1) Background review on shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh. 2) Results from a case study of farm management practices, hatcheries and wild shrimp fry collection and 3) Results from a case study on the social aspects of shrimp aquaculture, based on detailed local level studies in the Khulna region.

In Australia, strict Commonwealth and state environmental regulations have constrained development of shrimp farming. A high level of resources, relative to the size and value of the industry, has been devoted to collaborative research on the environmental management of shrimp farming in Australia. The research findings are being used to provide a scientific basis for discharge license requirements and are incorporated into an advanced geographic information and decision support system in order to improve site selection and aquaculture planning.

This document presents the report of the Expert Workshop on Management Strategies for Major Diseases in Shrimp Aquaculture. The report includes summaries of fifteen national review papers on the history and current national status of major shrimp diseases, including their socioeconomic impacts and an evaluation of the successes and failures of state and private sector interventions to solve major disease problems and to develop more sustainable shrimp culture industries, and four thematic reviews.

This review documents the status of shrimp aquaculture in relation to mangrove forest ecosystems. The environmental, social and economic impacts of shrimp farming are discussed, with examples covering both the negative and positive aspects of the sector. The review considers interventions and other activities to improve the sustainability of shrimp farming in the context of coastal zone management and the protection of mangrove ecosystems. The effectiveness of these interventions is considered in the light of experience based on case studies.