NACA

Expert Workshop on Inland Fisheries Resource Enhancement and Conservation in Asia

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:16:04 -0600

Over the past few decades inland fisheries resources have come under increasing pressure from water engineering projects, pollution and overfishing. This has lead to an alarming decline in the natural populations of many important inland fish species in Asian countries, with implications for the economic welfare and nutrition of millions of people that are dependant on these resources, for the environment, and also for the aquaculture industry that depends on the genetic resource base. Regional collaborative efforts are required to facilitate assessment of current inland fisheries resource enhancement and conservation practices, and there are transboundary coordination issues for countries that share rivers.

FAO and NACA convened an expert workshop to review inland fisheries resource enhancement and conservation practices in Pattaya, Thailand, 8-11 February. Experts from 10 Asian countries attended the meeting to share experiences and lessons learned. The papers and synthesis from the workshop will be published by FAO in due course, but in the meantime audio recordings of the workshop presentations are available for download below (MP3 format), or you can stream them from our server if you prefer to listen online. Country presentations on inland fisheries enhancement and conservation practices are available for:

Bangladesh (download MP3 | stream)
China (download MP3 | stream)
India (download MP3 | stream)
Indonesia (download MP3 | stream)
Republic of Korea (download MP3 | stream)
Myanmar (download MP3 | stream)
Nepal (download MP3 | stream)
Sri Lanka (download MP3 | stream)
Thailand (download MP3 | stream)
Vietnam (download MP3 | stream)

Use and Exchange of Aquatic Genetic Resources - free downloads

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:55:43 -0600

The new journal 'Reviews in Aquaculture' has published a special issue on the use and exchange of genetic resources of cultured aquatic animals and the articles are available for free download. This issue is the result of a consultation on behalf of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) of FAO, conducted in April 2009, in Chonburi, Thailand. In addition to the papers in this issue a synthesis paper on aquatic genetic resources was tabled at the twelfth regular session of the CGRFA in October, 2009, Rome. This is the first time that aquatic genetic resources have been included in the portfolio of the Commission, a recognition of the growing importance of the sector for sustainable food production. Contents of this issue include (PDF articles):

Success Stories in Asian Aquaculture - free download!

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:50:00 -0600

Update: Success Stories in Asian Aquaculture is now available for free download.

NACA is pleased to announce the release of a new flagship publication, Success Stories in Asian Aquaculture. The stories in this book reflect the unique nature of Asian aquaculture, providing first-time insight into how and why it has become so successful. Overall, the book demonstrates how the resiliency, adaptability, and innovation of small-scale aquaculture farmers have been crucial to this success. It also places aquaculture development in Asia into a wider global context, and describes its relationship to natural systems, social conditions, and economics. The book is unique in its in-depth presentation of primary research on Asian aquaculture, and in demonstrating how aquaculture can have a lasting positive impact on livelihoods, food security, and sustainable development.

This book will appeal to a wide range of readers. The introduction and conclusion give an excellent general overview of Asian aquaculture, and the individual case studies provide a wealth of new information for specialist readers. Researchers, development workers, and decision-makers, in particular, will be interested in how the Asian experience might be used to strengthen aquaculture development more generally and in other parts of the developing tropics of Latin America and Africa.

Dr Ayyappan becomes the Director General of ICAR

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:26:06 -0600

Dr S. Ayyappan has been appointed to the post of Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), with effect from 1 January 2010. With this appointment. Dr Ayyappan also becomes the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE).

ICAR, one of the largest R&D institutions dedicated to agricultural research has 5,000 scientists working in 45 institutes, 17 National Research Centres, 4 Deemed Universities, 6 National Bureaus, 25 Directorates and Project Directorates, 569 Krishi Vigyan Kendras, 44 state agricultural universities across the country and one Central Agricultural University at Manipur.

Dr Ayyappan obtained his B.F.Sc and M.F.Sc degrees from College of Fisheries, Mangalore and PhD from Bangalore University. In his distinguished career of over 30 years, he has headed two ICAR institutions namely CIFA and CIFE, before becoming the Deputy Director General of Fisheries in ICAR in 2002. He is a well known scientist and has contributed immensely to the development of fisheries and aquaculture in India.

Dr Ayyappan is well known to the NACA family of 18 governments in Asia Pacific. He has served NACA as its TAC and GC member for several years. NACA is very pleased and proud that a fisheries scientist has reached the highest position in the ICAR system in a big country like India. On behalf of member countries, NACA Secretariat wishes Dr Ayyappan all the best in his future endeavors.

Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010, Bangkok, 9-12 June

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:34:24 -0600

In 1976, FAO held the first ever global conference on aquaculture, the Kyoto Conference, which triggered the recognition of aquaculture as a significant food production sector and explored opportunities for aquaculture development. With aquaculture now providing nearly 50% of global food fish supplies, FAO in partnership with NACA and the Thai Department of Fisheries, are organising the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010, 9-12 June, Bangkok, Thailand, to evaluate where the sector stands today and prepare for the challenges ahead. The objectives of the conference are to:

Review the present status and trends in aquaculture development.
Evaluate the progress made in the implementation of the 2000 Bangkok Declaration and Strategy.
Address emerging issues in aquaculture development.
Assess opportunities and challenges for future aquaculture development.
Build consensus on advancing aquaculture as a global, sustainable and competitive food production sector.

The conference will provide a global forum to build consensus to advance sustainable aquaculture development and contribute to the Millennium Development Goals. Please see the conference website for the full programme. Online registration is available via the NACA website. Have your say on the future of aquaculture development, join us in Bangkok.

Special issue on use and exchange of genetic resources of cultured aquatic organisms

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:51:13 -0600

The journal Reviews in Aquaculture has published a Special Issue on Use and Exchange of Genetic Resources of Cultured Aquatic Organisms (zip: 2.4 MB), which is now available for reference and download. This issue is the result of an expert consultation held in Chonburi, Thailand in June 2009, under the auspices of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (GGRFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) facilitated by the Aquaculture Management and Conservation Service (FIMA) of the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, FAO and the Network of of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA). This special issue deals with the present state of knowledge in respect of common carp, salmonids, clarias catfish, tilapias, striped catfish, emerging finfish species, shrimp and molluscs, and with an editorial addressing the general issues on the status of aquatic genetic resources and use and exchange thereof. The consultation also produced a synthesis document that was tabled at the Twelfth Regular Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Aquaclimate project: India case study

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:32:49 -0600

NACAâs âAquaclimateâ project is taking up the case of small-scale shrimp farming in Andhra Pradesh, India, to investigate the impacts and adaptation to climate change. Andhra Pradesh has had many weather related impacts in recent years such as the worst drought in half a century, which occurred in early to mid 2009, followed by a severe flood of once in 100 years in October 2009. These extreme climatic events have had severe consequences including heavy economic losses to shrimp farmers in the state.

This case study aims to assess the degree of vulnerability of the small-scale shrimp farmers in Andhra Pradesh, and to provide guidelines on suitable measures to assist them to adapt to climate change and sustain their livelihoods.

On 3 December 2009 two focus group discussion workshops on the impacts of and adaption to climate change were conducted with sixteen small-scale shrimp farmers in Chinnapuram (an inland area), and seventeen in Gullalamoda (a coastal area), respectively, in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh.

The Israeli Journal of Aquaculture (Bamidgeh) now free

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:20:00 -0600

As from January 2010, the Israeli Journal of Aquaculture will appear exclusively as a peer reviewed free registration electronic Open Access Journal. This move will help the journal reach a larger worldwide public, including individuals and institutions with limited resources, and will enhance overall citations.

Free registration forms and more information concerning this open access project are available at: www.siamb.org.il

Technical course on federating digital library systems

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:46:04 -0600

A technical course and stakeholder workshop on Federation of Learning Repositories for Agriculture, Food and Environment and Stakeholder Workshop were held in Budapest, Hungary, 2-6 November. The course was an activity under the Agricultural Learning Repositories Task Force.

The workshop was essentially about how to make online libraries interoperable with one another, so that people can search across digital library collections owned by different organisations simultaneously and automatically. The course focused on metadata standards and protocols for automating data exchange, using examples drawn from existing federated systems including the European Schoolnet project, which is attempting to facilitate sharing and access to digital educational materials across the EU, ARIADNE, CGIAR and others.

The training course included hands-on implementation sessions during which participants set up a Simple Query Interface target, and an Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Handling (OAI-PMH) target, and also tools to run queries and harvest metadata against those targets. The course also covered metadata standards such as the Dublin Core, Learning Object Metadata and the construction of custom XML application profiles.

Version 2 of the draft better management practices for catfish farming released

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:22:44 -0600

The second Version of the draft better management practices for catfish farming in the Mekong Delta are now available for download. The first version of the document was developed based on analysis of an extensive farm survey. This second version has been amended based on feedback received at two stakeholder meetings held in Dong Thap and Can Tho, 6-7 and 9-10th October, respectively.

Version 2 will form the basis for discussions with all stakeholders of catfish farming to be conducted in May-June 2010 at a national workshop to be held in An Giang Province. The meeting will finalise the better management practice guidelines for implementation in the catfish farming sector. Extension materials with suitable illustrations are also being developed for wider distribution, providing practical guidance on implementation of the better management practices BMPs for each stage of the culture cycle.

For more information, please see the project webpage, Development of Better Management Practices for Catfish Aquaculture in the Mekong Delta