Fish culture is where people own and look after a stock of fish. This might involve regular stocking, fertilisation and feeding, protection from predators and disease and taking care of the environment.

When selecting a good place for a pond, an engineer may seek advice from local people, a biologist or an economist. It may be difficult to find an ideal site but it is necessary to look at the available sites before the work on pond building begins – so that it holds water, does not collapse or cost too much and will not waste effort and money. There are lots of things to think about before finally recommending a site.

In this issue: Seaweed culture and farmer incomes in Bekasi, Indonesia. Significant change for a self-help group. Conflict over fishing in Jharkhand. Critical steps in preparing coastal communities for effective policy changes. New guidelines on data collection and information sharing for co-management. About the STREAM Journal. About STREAM. This edition is also available in Ilonggo.

This report, the 30th in the series, contains information about the aquatic animal health status of sixteen states in the Asia-Pacific region. The foreword discusses capacity building and harmonisation in aquatic animal health within ASEAN.

In this issue:

Small-scale pond culture in Bangladesh. Issues and challenges in community-based aquaculture. Aquaculture as an action programme building confidence and self-worth. Transforming policy recommendations into pro-poor service provision. Grow out of spotted Babylon to marketable size in polyculture with seabass. Influence of economic conditions and global shocks on grouper markets. Status of cobia hatchery technology in Vietnam. Organic shrimp raceway system. Macrobrachium rosenbergii in Vembanad Lake. Management of monogenean parasites.

In this issue:

Experts gather to save giant catfish. Workshops on dissemination of better practice models for culture-based fisheries. Dr Chris Baldock, 1947-2005. MAHSEER 2006. MOU signing on conservation of Mahseer in Malaysia and Indonesia. Application of molecular genetics in aquaculture and inland fisheries management. New president of Iran Fisheries Organization. Workshop on the fishery management tool 'EnhanceFish'. Regional Mariculture Development Workshop in China, March 2006. Invitation to apply for position of Director General of NACA. MPEDA expands program on shrimp farmer clubs.

Presentation on a MPEDIA/NACA intiative to implement better management practices for shrimp farming amongst small-scale farmers in India via formation of farmer groups. The practices are based on the International Principles for Responsible Shrimp Farming. Adoption of improved farming practices reduces the incidence of disease and improves crop outcomes for small-scale farmers. This presentation was made at the World Aquaculture Society Conference in Bali, Indonesia, 2005.

The objective of this project, in taking forward the achievements of the earlier projects, is to develop and promote mechanisms for the delivery of rural services that can reach and benefit marginalised poor men and women of scheduled tribes and scheduled castes. This workshop in Kaipara Village was meant to “understand the quality of performance in service delivery to poor people through the project monitoring and evaluation system.” Significant change stories were prepared by participants.

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.

In this issue: One-stop aqua shops - an emerging phenomenon in eastern India. Ranchi One-stop Aqua Shop. Kaipara One-stop Aqua Shop. Bilenjore One-stop Aqua Shop. Patnagarh One-stop Aqua Shop. Using bar-coding in a one-stop aqua shop. About the STREAM Journal. About STREAM.