Small scale farmers are the mainstay of Asian aquaculture and generate the bulk of production, yet the small-scale nature of the sector poses special challenges in confronting emerging issues such as globalisation, the evolving international trade environment and maintaining environmental integrity.

In response, NACA and India's Marine Products Export Development Authority and National Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture have made extensive efforts to facilitate the formation of small-scale farmer societies. These provide small scale farmers with a louder and more unified voice, and assist them to face the challenges of production through adoption of better management practices. They also help prepare farmers for certification through improved understanding of issues such as food quality and traceability, in addition to providing a mechanism for imparting technical guidance and sharing experience on the concepts and procedures and methodologies involved. As certification of their produce offers small-scale farmers the opportunity to improve their economic independence with responsibility, by providing them a premium price with assured marketing for production of quality products.

An inception meeting on methodologies for certification of aquaculture societies was held from 1-2 September 2009 at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India. The objective of the meeting was to develop a draft methodology for certification of small-scale farmer 'aqua societies', independent of commodities and certification standards.

The inception work shop was attended by nineteen participants comprising of aqua society leaders, as well as representatives of certification programmes, central aquaculture research institutions, MPEDA, NaCSA, NACA and FAO. An informal meeting structure was adopted to encourage and facilitate free exchange of ideas and discussions. The meeting comprised of four sessions.

Session I: Cluster certification of Macrobrachium: issues, challenges, opportunities and solutions
Mr Meher, President of Sri Sainadha Aqua Farmers Welfare Society, Velivella, shared his society's experiences on organic certification by Naturland. He emphasised that the internal control system (ICS) is the key step and the efficiency of the same reflects in the success of the certification programme. He acknowledged the support extended by MPEDA and NaCSA in terms of financial subsidy and guidance in connection with the Organic Certification Programme and also thanked Indocert (Inspection Agency of Naturland) for imparting training on ICS that forms the foundation of the certification programme.

Mr Phaniraju, President of Sri Venkateswara Aqua Farmers Welfare Society, Matsyapuri pointed out that convincing member(s) of the society on organic certification was the key issue and after seeing the success of the organic members of society, more farmers joined the Organic Certification Programme.

Mr Narayanamurthy, President of Sri Subrahmaneswara Aqua Farmers Welfare Society, Mogultur, a pioneer in aqua club formation during 2003 indicated that assessment of the capacities of water sources, farms and farmers is important to successful Aquaculture operations. He reiterated the importance of better management practices and internal control system for aqua societies towards certification.

Mr Anil of Indocert pointed out the importance of ICS and emphasised the need to impart requisite Training on ICS for better understanding and efficient operation. He added that the standards are set in keeping in view of site characteristics and the methodology practiced by the farmers to facilitate compliance with the set standards.

Dr Muthuraman, Joint Director of MPEDA gave a presentation on the Indian Organic Aquaculture Programme (IOAP) mentioning the SECO (Formerly known as SIPPO) - MPEDA - arrangement involving Naturland Certification Programme.

Session 2: Cluster certification of Penaeus. monodon issues, challenges, opportunities and solutions
The NaCSA presentation was dealt by Mr Chandra Mohan, which provided various suggestions and possible solutions to several of the issues and concluded with a positive note that aqua society certification for P. monodon is a possibility.

Mr Koji Yamamoto gave an account of NACA work in Thailand with reference to Samyroid Shrimp Cluster.

Dr Santhanakrishnan, Auditor for the Aquaculture Certification Council (ACC) stated that by adopting better management practices the societies are moving in the right direction towards sustainable aquaculture. He mentioned that water quality monitoring (both influent and effluent) is a mandatory procedure in the Certification Programme.

Session 3: Presentation of draft paper on aqua society certification
A draft paper concerning aqua society certification was presented. Mr Kalyanaraman acknowledged the co-operation / enthusiasm shown by small scale aquaculture farmers in formation of aqua societies and adoption of better management practices towards sustainable aquaculture. With a little more focused efforts certification would become a reality for many aqua societies, he added. A detailed power point presentation of the draft guidance document outlining various suggested steps for preparing small scale farmers' society certification was presented.

Session 4: Discussions on the draft paper on aqua society certification
Dr CV Mohan (NACA) summarised the proceedings of the first day. The second day of the workshop was devoted for discussing each of the steps in detail and making suggestions for improving and revising the draft guidance document. Suggestions were made on ICS, SOP and the organisational structure of the certification programme and effluent monitoring plan. All the participants actively provided comments and suggestions on the draft methodology paper.

Outcomes
The outcome of the inception meeting was as follows:

• The workshop strongly felt that the steps suggested for aqua society certification in the draft guidance document were meaningful, practical and achievable.
• It was agreed that the revised document could be used by NaCSA to promote the concept of society certification in its 200+ societies in addition to the better management practices that are being promoted.
• The certification methodology developed is independent of commodity type and related certification standards.
• The methodology developed would enable aqua societies to seek certification from independent third party certification programmes or could be used for proposing voluntary self certification by the aqua societies themselves.

Follow up action
Three aqua societies have been identified for pilot testing the guidelines and discussion has been initiated with their members on the need, advantages and steps involved in obtaining society certification. Work on the preparation of a related training manual is in progress.

More information is available from the project page on Certification of Aqua Societies.