| Pond Dynamics/Aquaculture CRSP | Aquanews ~ Winter 2002 |
| Previous Page | Contents | |
| CRSP homepage |
|
Field Notes on the Headline News Gnawing at my subconscious during the trip was my concern that domestic
and international air transportation might be affected as a result of
the Mao activities, and I was fearful of getting caught in a further
escalation of the civil unrest. The laborers and drivers working in the station in Tarahara feel that these national events have little relevance to their day-to-day lives. They seem interested in neither politics nor the Royal Family’s affairs; they were happy we were there to help them produce cheap fish so that they can provide some protein for their children’s plates. |
| CRSP researcher Amrit Bart, at the Asian Institute of Technology, is a principal investigator on the Product Diversification Research activity “Transfer of production technology to Nepal for Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus,” collaborating with A.K. Rai at the Regional Agricultural Research Station at Tarahara, Nepal. |
by Amrit Bart
recent
visit to Nepal was intended primarily to purchase
supplies and materials in Kathmandu and to stock
previously delivered fish fry from AIT in Thailand in the ponds at the Tarahara
research station for a tilapia study that was already two months delayed. The
tasks, although seemingly simple, turned out to be everything but...
My trip to the market turned out to be an adventure. I was looking to purchase a “Hac Kit” for water quality analysis for the study. The vendor explained that any reagent containing hazardous material was unavailable because of the recent tightening of airline shipping controls. Besides, replacement reagents were difficult to import since they came from the US. It took us three days to settle on a combination of tools to be able to carry out six water quality analyses. A dissolved oxygen meter was purchased from an Indian supplier, who forgot to enclose the probe along with the meter. When we enquired, the vendor was unavailable and we were stuck with a DO meter without a probe. At this point I realized that I am more than a little spoiled by the ease with which we can purchase scientific material and supplies in Bangkok. It took some effort to find a compatible probe through other local vendors.
Stocking of fish in the pond was meant to be an even simpler task, which also
turned out not to be the case. The ponds that were intended to be 100 m2
were actually 200 m2. In order to have the appropriate stocking density
we therefore had to divide these ponds in two. After dividing six ponds into
two parts each, we harvested the 30-day-old fry that three weeks before were
stocked in separate ponds. To our dismay less than 3,000 were recovered from
12,000 stocked. We also found that handling these fish at temperatures between
19 to 20°C resulted in a large number of unexpected deaths. This required
the ponds to be further split in 3 in order to keep the same stocking density
(3 fish/m2).
This project is the first of its kind in Nepal. Discussions with the Directors
of the Nepal National Research Council revealed that they have had other CRSP-related
activities, and there is potential to involve PD/A CRSP in other integrated
research activities.
| 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 |