Better management practices have proved to be a highly effective tool for the Indian shrimp farming industry. Work to extend adoption of the practices is ongoing and in this view a national workshop was held in Chennai, 16-18 May 2011 at the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture to discuss scaling up strategies, to extend the concept to new areas and to involve more farmers and identify lessons learned that can be applied elsewhere.

The aims of the workshop were to:

• Build awareness and capacity of relevant stakeholders on BMPs, cluster management, standards and certification, cluster/group certification, internal control systems and market access issues.
• To share lessons from BMP and cluster management projects in India, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.
• To perform a thorough assessment of the impact of shrimp BMP and cluster management programs in India, including technical, social, economic and environmental concerns.
• To identify factors for success and constraints to adoption.
• To identify opportunities and challenges for scaling up.
• To provide projections on the impact of scaling up at the national level.
• To develop scaling up strategies for use by national institutions, regional organisations and potential donors.

The workshop was an activity of the ASEM Aquaculture Platform, funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme.

The recordings in this collection are the annual progress reports of NACA’s regional lead centres in India, Thailand, China and the Philippines, plus a summary of NACA’s progress over the past five years and a special address by Professor E.G. Silas. The presentations were made at the 22nd NACA Governing Council Meeting in Cochi, Kerala, from 9-11 May 2011, which was hosted by the Government of India.

The Governing Council is NACA’s peak policy body, which meets annually to review the organisation’s activities and set priorities for the year ahead. Collectively NACA’s 18 member states produce more than 90% of global aquaculture by volume, which now represents around 50% of the global food fish supply.

Small scale farmers are under increasing pressure from the globalised trading environment. International requirements on food safety, traceability, animal health and welfare and social responsibility are increasingly stringent. The burden of compliance and the cost of certification are particularly heavy for small scale farmers who are often excluded by the limited resources at their disposal.

Working in groups can help small scale farmers attain economies of scale necessary to address compliance issues and participate in certification schemes, improving their competitive position. However, forming collaborative groups and coordinating their activities brings it own challenges.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) supported the Government of Thailand to implement a technical coperation project on "Certification for small-scale aquaculture in Thailand". A train-the-trainers workshop was convened from 21-23 April 2011 to extend the outcomes of the project to DOF personnel involved in aquaculture certification and extension.

The conference was organised by FAO, the Thai Department of Fisheries and NACA and held in the Mövenpick Resort and Spa, Phuket, Thailand, 22-25 September.

The conference was the third in a series of aquaculture development conferences, following on from the Conference on Aquaculture in the Third Millennium held in Bangkok 2000, and the FAO Technical Conference on Aquaculture, held in Kyoto 1976.

The programme included seven regional and global reviews on aquaculture development, nine plenary and invited guest lectures, and twenty expert panel discussions across six thematic sessions. This audio collection represents the entire conference proceedings.

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.

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.