Production system and challenges of saline aquaculture in Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan

IntroductionLack of data about saline aquaculture in Pakistan has curtailed informed policy and investment decision making resulting in undervaluation of and underinvestment in the sector. Therefore, saline aquaculture in Pakistan is today an underdeveloped sector despite its potential as an alternative livelihood for the country's rural farmers. This study represents one of the initial exploratory investigations into saline aquaculture systems in Pakistan, aiming to comprehend the existing sectoral landscape, production challenges, post-harvest constraints, and the associated capacity and investment needs.MethodsThe study employed purposive sampling to survey 121 low-income saline aquaculture farmers across five districts of Southern Punjab and Sindh provinces. The analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics.ResultsThe results revealed that the saline aquaculture sector is predominantly male-centric, with agricultural land utilized for both agriculture and aquaculture purposes. Ponds, which usually serve multiple functions, focus primarily on carp production, but adherence to good management practices remains limited. Farmers face various challenges, including the high costs of feed and seeds, freshwater scarcity, inadequate technical knowledge, and marketing issues.Discussion and conclusionThis study serves as a foundational assessment, addressing data and information gaps crucial for supporting the sustainable development of saline aquaculture in Pakistan. To facilitate such development, the study recommends initiating programs to strengthen technical skills in saline aquaculture, together with the establishment of hatcheries and breeding stations for saline-tolerant species, aiming to reduce dependence on freshwater species in saline pond environments

Sustainable intensification of small-scale aquaculture production in Myanmar through diversification and better management practices

Small-scale aquaculture systems can contribute significantly to food and nutritional security, poverty alleviation, and rural development, especially in developing countries. However, the intensification of aquaculture systems often has negative environmental outcomes. The adoption of diversification practices (e.g. polyculture, pond-dike cropping (PDC)) and better management practices (BMPs) has been identified as a possible approach to intensify sustainably small-scale aquaculture production. This study assesses the sustainability outcomes of the adoption of diversification practices and BMPs in small-scale production models. We focus on Myanmar, a developing country characterized by a rapidly expanding small-scale aquaculture sector. We analyze 624 household surveys with small-scale aquaculture producers in central and northern Myanmar. We estimate the effects of diversification practices and BMPs on different sustainability outcomes, namely economic outcomes (i.e. aquaculture yield and benefit-cost ratio), environmental outcomes (i.e. nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiency), and food security outcomes (i.e. fish self-consumption and household dietary diversity) through linear mixed-effects models. Our results reveal that diversified production models (whether integrating or not integrating BMPs) could have significant positive effects on economic and food security outcomes, as well as phosphorus use efficiency, compared to 'unimproved monoculture'. However, such production models do not seem to have any major effect on nitrogen use efficiency. The adoption of BMPs on diversified production models seems to have little (if any) added effect on any of the studied sustainability outcomes, which suggests the need to improve existing BMPs or even develop new BMPs fit for Myanmar's context. These findings have implications about the possible contribution of diversification practices and BMPs for enabling sustainable intensification in small-scale aquaculture settings in Myanmar, and other rural developing contexts

Agile Strategy: Output from AquaData Workshop

WorldFish and AgUnity conducted a workshop for the AquaData initiative from 15 November to 17 November 2022. This document outlines some of the key outputs from those three days and the minimum viable product that emerged as the leading candidate for initial development

Using a sustainable food systems framework to examine gender equality and women’s empowerment in aquatic food systems

This article aims to generate novel insights by examining gender dynamics within aquaculture and small-scale fisheries, employing a gendered agrifood systems conceptual framework to comprehensively analyze gender equality and women’s empowerment in aquatic food systems. To do this, it evaluates 202 articles using a scoping review methodology. Though additional literature from 19 articles was pulled in to provide the context. The findings are that aquatic foods value chains and food environment are negatively impacted by gender disparities in terms of women’s agency, access to and control over resources, gendered social norms, and policies and governance. This hampers the ability of women to engage in and benefit from aquatic food systems. This results in gendered disparities in dietary outcomes, low achievements in relation to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and less adaptive capacity in relation to developing resilient livelihoods. The article acknowledges the importance of developing and leveraging women’s agency and bargaining power, strengthening their access to and control over key aquatic food systems resources, tackling harmful gender norms, developing gender-sensitive data collection and analysis to inform evidence-based policymaking, and implementing gender-responsive and gender-transformative policies and strategies to create an enabling environment for these interventions to succeed. Investment in multi-level, and multi-layered, gender-responsive and gender-transformative approaches are needed to co-develop – with women and their organizations – positive, gender-equitable norms to strengthen women’s agency and decision-making at a variety of levels, ranging from individual to policy level

WorldFish: An Introduction

CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources. WorldFish's mission is to end hunger and advance sustainable development by 2030 through science and innovation to transform food, land and water systems with aquatic foods for healthier people and planet

AQUADATA: A work package of the Resilient Aquatic Food Systems Initiative

Presentation held at the FishBase - SeaLifeBase Symposium on the Approach to Data developed by the AqFs Initiative and possible synergies with FishBase and SeaLifeBase

Introduction to Economics

Economics is a science, and just like other sciences, it deals with a fundamental problem of nature. Economics is the branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption and transfer of wealth. It is the study of how scarce resources are allocated to fulfill the infinite wants of consumers

AQUADATA in brief

Presentation held at the University of Pisa - Topic: Introduction to AquaData and approaches to data in Aquatic Food Systems

Smallholder-Based Oil Palm and Rubber Production in the Forest Region of Guinea: An Exploratory Analysis of Household Food Security Outcomes

The Guinean government has promoted the large-scale production of industrial crops such as oil palm and rubber through the Guinean Oil Palm and Rubber Company (SOGUIPAH). Smallholder-based production of these crops has also been promoted to boost rural development but the food security outcomes are unclear. This exploratory study assesses the food security outcomes of smallholder-based oil palm and rubber production at the household level using six standardized metrics of food security. We compare households involved in industrial crop production and households that only grow food crops under subsistence conditions through statistical tools such as Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Endogenous Treatment Effect Regression (ETER). Overall, results suggest that oil palm and rubber smallholders perform better than subsistence farmers on metrics that capture perceptions of hunger and coping behaviors but perform worse for food diversity metrics. We hypothesize that this discrepancy can possibly be explained by the strong sense of security that steady income provides across time, which outweighs the shortcomings of diet diversity. The results of this exploratory study can inform the development of more detailed assessments of the food security outcomes of interventions implemented by SOGUIPAH in the area (and the mechanism through which these impacts emerge)

Enhancing participatory evaluation in a humanitarian aid project

This article examines participatory evaluation of humanitarian aid projects in post-conflict contexts, through the presentation of a particular case: the evaluation of a project supporting herders and Bedouin communities breeding small ruminants in the Gaza Strip. The article analyses the current situation in the Gaza Strip, a unique humanitarian context, in order to gain insight into the value of participatory evaluation in post-conflict settings. The article analyses the participatory evaluation in order to understand how participation functions, what lessons can be learned and what outcomes can be generated. Finally, this experience demonstrates how participatory evaluation can work effectively in humanitarian settings despite the obvious constraints of conflict and post-conflict settings. Whilst participatory evaluation contributes to improving humanitarian-aid interventions, a more structural approach to participation is needed to achieve concrete and durable results