News
Data collection for the AFSPAN Project has commenced, with field surveys underway in eleven countries spanning Asia, Africa and South America. The project will survey around 120 farms and 120 households in each country, working throughout Bangladesh, China, India, the Philipppines, Viet Nam, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Brazil, Chile and Nicaragua.
The surveys are collecting data concerning farming practices and the importance of aquaculture to household employment and nutrition. The farm surveys are examining production issues including labour and time usage patterns, major costs and income generated on farms across a variety of scales. The surveys target several important species in each country to achieve a broad overall coverage that includes freshwater catfish, prawns carps and tilapia, and marine shrimp, milkfish, salmon, shellfish and seaweeds. The household surveys are gathering data on household demographics, food consumption, employment and income from aquaculture and other jobs and expenditure patterns.
The data generated by these surveys will allow the project to develop a better understanding of the contribution of aquaculture to food security, nutrition, employment creation, income generation and women’s empowerment.
In a major breakthrough, researchers at the University of Arizona have identified the causative agent behind "shrimp early mortality syndrome" or EMS, more accurately known as acute hepatopancreatic necrosis syndrome.
The causative agent is a strain of a bacteria commonly found in brackish water, Vibrio parahemolyticus, with possible involvement of a phage. For the full story, please visit the press release on the FAO website.
A Literature review on the potential contribution of fish-related activities to food and nutritional security and poverty alleviation is now available for download. The review is a component of Work Package 2: Assessment methodologies, indicators and framework.
The objective of this document is to review the literature that has been published so far on the potential contribution of fish-related activities (aquaculture and fisheries) to food and nutritional security and poverty alleviation. This body of literature –which is found essentially in the aquaculture/fisheries literature, but also for some parts in the nutrition literature- turns out to be relatively heterogeneous and scattered, relying on different types of indicators and data. This information, which has been generated by different methodologies, applied at various scale (household, community, national levels), offers therefore very limited possibility for rigorous comparison or aggregation across projects, location or countries.
In this report the task consisted in collating these analyses and producing the first comprehensive overview of the data and methods used to assess and quantify the role of aquaculture in improving food, nutrition and livelihood in Low Income and Food Deficient countries (LIFDCs). As part of this process, those different analyses were assessed and particular attention was paid to highlight not only the information generated but also the gap in knowledge where more research is needed.
Sixty five documents (peer-reviewed articles, project reports, international agencies’ reports) were identified and reviewed. To maximize the range of the assessment, the review included both aquaculture and fisheries documents. The complete list of these documents is presented at the end of this document.
This video presentation by FAO's Dr Rohana Subasinghe examines the future of aquaculture production in the context of food security out to 2030. Issues covered include projected demand for fisheries products, supply issues for both wild fisheries and aquaculture and the challenges that lay ahead in bridging the gap. The presentation was given at the FAO-APFIC-NACA Consultation on Sustainable Intensification of Aquaculture in the Asia-Pacific Region, 9-11 October, Bangkok.
A larger, higher quality version is available for download (36.8 MB) or you can view it online (please note, you will need Windows Media Player V12 to view this file).
A preliminary report of a desk study on regional/international cooperation activities is now available for download.
The objective of the AFSPAN Work Package Review and assessment of national and international cooperation is to review past and on-going cooperation activities focussed on promoting aquaculture in a food security context.
The activities under this work package include: conducting review focusing on regional and international cooperation activities, FAO projects, WorldFish Center projects, relevant CGIAR programmes (including CPR1.3) and projects supported/financed by other donors and development partners and/or implemented by national governments.
The present report deals with the deliverable 3.1 “Preliminarily report on desk study on regional/international cooperation activities’’ which was prepared by the 11 country partners of AFSPAN (Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Kenya, Nicaragua, Philippines, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zambia) and synthesised by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The desk study revealed that there are significant difference between 11 countries in term of the national projects, regional and international cooperation activities. It also identified number of ongoing projects that would be important for AFSPAN project to closely communicate and work in a synergistic and complementary manner. Initial findings are already embedded in the assessment tool which is being developed.
The present preliminarily report and its findings will be shared and discussed amongst the partners, and each work package will be further refined for better approach and cooperation.
A comprehensive analysis and synthesis of national information on aquaculture development projects and activities is currently being done.
