Commercial Aquaculture And Economic Growth Poverty Alleviation And Food Security

There is ample evidence that, when properly conducted, especially as a business (commercial) activity, aquaculture can make significant contribution to national food security, poverty alleviation and economies, factors which often determine policy makers' support to any sector. Yet, quantitative evaluation of these merits is poorly documented, particularly in developing countries, which often limits the much needed political and financial support to the sector for its adequate development. This paper suggests to measure aquaculture's contribution to a country's economy through the "aquaculture employment multiplier." While the document refers to "commercial aquaculture" throughout, the methodology developed can be applied to aquaculture in general.

Most small-scale fisheries are in developing countries and many live in poor and food insecure communities. These guidelines considers how small-scale fisheries can contribute to poverty alleviation and food security, and complement existing technical guidelines on sustainable fisheries. Issues discussed include: participation by small-scale fishers and their communities in development of policy and regulation measures, as well as in management decision-making and implementation processes; cross-sectoral uses of fisheries and related resources; the special role of women in fish marketing, processing and value addition; the significant scope for trade; financing; information research and communication aspects.

This study provides an overview of the aquaculture sector in Ghana. It assesses the actual and potential contribution of aquaculture to poverty reduction and food security, and identifies enabling conditions for and drivers of the development of Ghana’s aquaculture sector. The study uses data collected from a variety of primary and secondary sources, including key informant interviews with actors within the aquaculture sector and relevant secondary literature.

This document was prepared within the framework of the FAO’s Strategic Objective 1 (SO1): Help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. This document served as a background paper to present the status of policy mainstreaming and policy research for the improvement of policy development in aquaculture in support of food security, nutrition and poverty eradication. The document was presented in various African fora and received the validation of the stakeholders for its publication as part of policy research. Specifically, the paper was presented and included the inputs from the Consultative Meeting on Aquaculture Policy Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 3 to 4 December 2018, 37th SADC Fisheries and Aquaculture technical meeting in Windhoek and the Consultative meeting on “improving policy development in aquaculture in support of food security, nutrition and poverty eradication” held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 10 to 14 June 2019. This research report includes recommendations by the stakholders to guide the mainstreaming of fisheries and aquaculture within wider policy frameworks, for the formulation and implementation of technical programmes for enhanced food security and nutrition at country and regional level in Africa.

This publication contains the report of a workshop, held in Zambia in October 2002, organised to consider the role of commercial aquaculture in helping to secure poverty alleviation through the promotion of regional economic growth, employment opportunities and food security. Recommendations made include the need for clear national policies for commercial aquaculture development, defining models for economic and financial viability assessments to be applied by funding institutions, and disseminating research findings to farmers and information sharing at all levels of aquaculture development.

Complementing Module 1 on the technical dimension of commercial aquaculture, this training module looks at the economic aspects of aquaculture development and discusses sustainability and business planning. It provides guidance for small- and medium-scale fish farmers on assessing the economic and financial viability of their fish farms, including the technicalities of cost structure and cash flow analyses.

"Beyond previous more simplistic approaches, this book takes a giant step towards understanding and translating into people-centered policies the actual position and complexity of fish production in Southeast Asian economies. Tackling how fi sheries and aquaculture are embedded in local and household economies and linked through dynamic supply chains to more distant, even global markets, the book makes essential policy and analytical recommendations. SEARCA and ISEAS have made a major contribution to the intellectual debate and action agenda for Southeast Asian fisheries." Dr Meryl Williams, Chair of the Commission of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research