Grouper aquaculture and livelihood security in Thailand

Many fishing practices occur on a large scale, causing environmental destruction. The small-scale farming of high-value fish has been suggested as an alternative, but does aquaculture (fish farming) play the same role in livelihoods as conventional fishing? And do poorer households really benefit from aquaculture?

Grouper is a high-value marine fish and is intensively farmed, producing live fish destined for export markets and wealthy urban consumers. Farming grouper has high investment costs, including cages and seed fish. This makes it an unlikely candidate for poverty reduction. But it has been widely promoted as an alternative to fishing for wild grouper, which has negative effects such as the destruction of reef environments.

Research from Stirling University, in the UK, the Rajamangala Institute of Technology, in Thailand, and the World Fish Center, in Malaysia, examines grouper farming in 27 villages in southern Thailand.

The research shows that the uptake of grouper farming is not confined to wealthier households, although uptake varies greatly between communities. On average across the 27 villages, 12.5 percent of households in each village farm grouper. However, this ranges from 0.7 percent in one village to 69 percent in another.

Understanding how and why grouper farming is practised by the majority of households in one particular village became a key research issue. The researchers discovered that residents had overcome the initial barrier of investment through a project by the Thai Department of Fisheries. This project supported the development of small-scale fisheries, providing start-up materials and technical assistance for a transition to grouper farming.

Selected villages were provided with materials for cages and some households received aquaculture training. If the farmer was successful, they would pay back the cost of cage materials into a central village fund, which enabled other households to invest.

The researchers found that:

• Poorer households caught small numbers of wild, juvenile grouper to stock in cages, instead of buying them from a trader – this made fish culture accessible to households with few financial resources.
• Fisher households caught small fish to feed their farmed fish, reducing the need to buy feed.
• Poorer households were able to reduce the risk of losing the fish stock to disease by adopting a short culture cycle.
• Farmers reduced the risk of farming high-value, disease-prone grouper by also stocking lower-value, disease-resilient seabass.
• Grouper farming primarily provides households with a way to save money; fishing, trading and waged labour are more important as sources of income for daily needs.
• Grouper farming fits well with existing fisher livelihoods, as fishing for juvenile grouper and small fish takes place when other fishing activities are not possible.

Grouper farming can provide an opportunity for poor households to generate substantial financial benefits. As the success of the Department of Fisheries project shows, opportunities will be greater with efforts to remove the barriers to initial investments, and support for farmers to sustain production.

• Affordable and accessible finance is the key external input for the successful spread of this kind of aquaculture.
• Efforts to provide alternatives to existing livelihood activities should not overlook the importance of synergy between different activities.

Grouper aquaculture continues to depend on wild seed fish supplies, exerting pressure on wild fish stocks. Yet this dependency keeps the production of grouper relatively low, the value high, and in the hands of small-scale farmers who stand to benefit most from these production systems.

Source(s):
'Aquaculture and the Poor – is the Culture of High-value Fish a Viable Livelihood Option for the Poor?' Marine Policy 32, pages 1094 to 1102, by Natasja Sheriff, David Little and Kwanta Tantikamton, 2008

Funded by: University of Stirling studentship; UK Department for International Development Aquaculture and Fish Genetics Research Program (AFGRP); European Commission, under the Asian Institute of technology-Postgraduate Technology Studies program (AIT-PTS)

id21 Research Highlight: 6 February 2009

Further Information:
Natasja Sheriff
WorldFish Center
Jalan Batu Maung
Batu Maung
11960 Bayan Lepas
Penang
Malaysia

Tel: +60 4 6202126
Fax: +60 4 6265530
Contact the contributor: n.sheriff@cgiar.org

WorldFish Center, Penang, Malaysia

Other related links:
‘Does aquaculture really benefit poor people in the Philippines?'

‘Aquaculture: benefiting rural and urban people’

‘Developing technologies for sustainable fisheries in Asia’