PD/A CRSP Expands to Vietnam, Nepal, and Bangladesh
by Yang Yi
 |
|
Fish culture operation in river at Dong Thap, Vietnam |
nder
the Tenth Work Plan, PD/A CRSP has expanded to Vietnam, Nepal, and Bangladesh,
making the Thailand Project into a truly regional project. To reflect this
expansion, it is the time to rename the Southeast Asia Regional Project to
the South and Southeast Asia Regional Project.
The studies in Vietnam are focusing on relatively unconventional aquaculture
methods. In the mountainous areas of central and northern Vietnam, a large
number of watershed ponds and reservoirs have been created mostly for household
water supply and crop irrigation, while aquaculture in these areas has not
been well developed. For most inhabitants in these areas, the supply of animal
protein is relatively limited, including only small contributions from fish.
The watershed study will survey biophysical and socioeconomic aspects of watershed
areas in the Thai Nguyen district, develop a GIS database for planning of
aquaculture development, and identify suitable watershed ponds for aquaculture.
In some reservoirs, cove culture has been adopted to enhance fish production;
however, little information is available on the natural food productivity
in coves. The goal of the cove-culture study is to determine biomass production
of various trophic levels in fish culture coves, develop a trophic box model
for a selected cove, and develop recommendations on ecologically sound management
strategies for cove aquaculture.
In the Mekong Delta of Southern Vietnam, cage culture of Pangasius catfish
is a common practice and is very important for the local economy. However,
there are widespread concerns that cage culture is resulting in environmental
degradation as well as mismanagement of cages. The cage-culture study will
assess environmental impacts of catfish cage culture in rivers and recommend
methods for pollution mitigation.
In Nepal, polyculture of herbivorous carp is a common practice. However,
the major constraints for small-scale, resource-poor farmers are fish feeds
and chemical fertilizers, which are expensive and unavailable, while livestock
manure is traditionally used for land crops. By using the principle of traditional
Chinese polyculture “one grass carp raises three silver carp,” the
study in Nepal will develop a polyculture system of grass carp and Nile tilapia
with napier grass as the sole nutrient input. The outcome of this study will
benefit resource-poor farmers in many other countries.
Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. Fisheries and aquaculture
in particular are vital to Bangladesh’s national economy in terms of
nutrition, income, employment generation, and foreign exchange earning. In
Bangladesh, a variety of aquaculture and fisheries development projects have
been funded with international aid. However, many NGOs have been promoting
aquaculture development independently through their own extension networks,
with little involvement of academic and governmental institutions. The first
step of CRSP work in Bangladesh is to bring different NGOs and academic institutions
together through both on-station and on-farm comparative trials of fertilization
regimes prescribed by NGOs, extended by the Bangladesh Agricultural University,
and developed by CRSP. Finally, an appropriate fertilization strategy will
be developed to assist small-scale farmers.
With this expansion of the PD/A CRSP, we believe that the successful models
of the PD/A CRSP in the past two decades will help aquaculture development
in South and Southeast Asia regions.
| Previous Page | Contents | |
| CRSP homepage |
| The Aquaculture CRSP is funded under USAID Grant No. LAG-G-00-96-90015-00
and by
the participating US and Host Country institutions.
Questions for or about the Aquaculture CRSP? Comments about this site? Please visit the FAQ page or email us at ACRSP@oregonstate.edu.
Disclaimers |