Developing technologies for sustainable fisheries in Asia

Governments in Asia must prioritise technologies that improve fishery productivity to meet the growing local and international demand for fish. This increased productivity must be sustainable, however, and benefits need to be shared amongst people living in poverty who depend on fisheries.

As populations increase and people’s incomes rise, the demand for fish also increases. If this rising demand cannot be met, it is poor people who will suffer from fish shortages. It is estimated that the per capita consumption of fish may fall over the next fifteen years in Bangladesh, the Philippines and other countries. Fish is a major source of nutrition for poor people in Asia and lower fish consumption threatens their food security.

Increasing production will require new technologies for fisheries and aquaculture. WorldFish convened a workshop to discuss, synthesize and communicate recent research about the criteria for prioritising pro-poor fishing technologies.

The workshop participants agreed the following criteria for choosing priority technologies:

• Production efficiency: new fishing equipment should increase catches with the same effort, and technology for processing these catches (post-harvest technology) should reduce losses. This will increase profits, which can then be used for future investments.
• Food and nutrition security: fish is an important source of protein, and technology should make fish and fishery products more widely available and affordable for poor people.
• Employment generation: inefficient labour markets and a lack of capital mean that poor people, especially women, lack access to employment opportunities and cannot set up their own businesses.
• New technologies could enable more people living in poverty to work in fisheries. Whilst some new technologies reduce labour demand - meaning fewer jobs - some technologies require only unskilled labour - thereby creating opportunities for poor people that were not there before.
• Environmental impact: aquaculture must be integrated into watershed and coastal zone planning (for example regarding the treatment of waste and avoiding introduction of alien species).
• Acceptability: new technology must be supported by the community to succeed; it should be appropriate, simple and affordable for fish farmers, fishers and processors.

The workshop participants acknowledged that capture fisheries - where naturally occurring aquatic organisms are harvested - have reached, or are approaching, their production limits. Significant expansion in production can only take place through aquaculture or the controlled cultivation of aquatic plants and organisms.

The WorldFish Center recommends that countries develop national strategies for developing fisheries and aquaculture that apply these criteria. They also recommend that policymakers and researchers should:

• expand and invest in research and technical institutions to develop appropriate aquaculture technologies that improve productivity
• manage capture fisheries better by reducing inshore fishery catches, setting up local groups to manage inland fisheries, and promoting the sustainable expansion of offshore fisheries
• provide high-quality fish seed (young fish for hatcheries and nurseries) and financial services to farmers and fishers living in poverty
• improve post-harvest processing enterprises
• enable regional collaboration in natural resource management and trade.

Source(s):
‘Priority Technologies and National Strategies to Develop and Manage Fisheries and Aquaculture’, The WorldFish Center Policy Brief 1702, The WorldFish Center: Penang, 2007 (PDF) Full document.

id21 Research Highlight: 27 April 2008

Further Information:
The WorldFish Center
PO Box 500
GPO10670 Penang
Malaysia

Tel: +60 4 6261606
Fax: +60 4 6265530
Contact the contributor: worldfishcenter@cgiar.org

The WorldFish Center, Malaysia

Other related links:
'Co-managing Lake Victoria’s fisheries for sustainable development'

'Fisheries co-management: experiences from the Fisheries Management Science Programme'

'Addressing challenges in co-management information systems'