INTRODUCTION

The goal of the CRSPs current five-year USAID grant, the Continuation Plan 1996—2001,is to provide a basis for improving the sustainability of aquaculture production systems. This approach uses two building blocks to identify research priorities: research in production systems; and capacity building via research support. Research in production systems is organized into three research areas (Production Optimization, Environmental Effects, and Social and Economic Aspects), which are further subdivided into specific research themes.

The Ninth Work Plan of the Pond Dynamics/Aquaculture CRSP describes activities to be conducted by the CRSP beginning between 1 August 1998 and 1 May 1999, to be finished by 30 April 2001. Previous activities under this grant are described in the Eighth Work Plan, which covered the period from 1 August 1996 to 31 July 1998. Work under the Ninth Work Plan will be implemented at the following research sites: Mexico, Honduras, Peru, Kenya, the Philippines, Thailand, and the US.

Work in Honduras was interrupted at the conclusion of the Eighth Work Plan, and a request for proposals was issued to identify a new lead institution for the Honduras work. The University of Georgia was selected as the new lead institution for the Honduras project, with Auburn University as a collaborating US institution. The Honduran counterpart institution is the Escuela Agrícola Panamericana El Zamorano.

Five new work plans for work to be undertaken as part of the new Honduras Project appear here for the first time. Also appearing here for the first time are four additional work plans, study codes 9RCR8, 9NS4, 9ER4, and 9HCD4. 9RCR8, which was approved in order to increase host country participation, and 9NS4 were approved after funds were made available when other Ninth Work Plan awards were declined. 9ER4 replaces the discontinued Education Development Component Eighth Work Plan activity HCD1B, "Create a CRSP Fellowship Program to Provide Appropriate Support for Graduate-Level Students." 9HCD4 replaces the Ninth Work Plan activity 9HCD2, "Building Research Capacity in CRSP Host Countries." The award for 9HCD2 was declined; thus, the responsibility for funding a Philippine graduate student (the objective of 9HCD2) was moved to the Philippines Project and subsequently funded as 9HCD4. These new work plans comprise Section A of the following report; Section B contains revised experimental designs, and Section C contains revised schedules.

Two projects were offered but declined funding for proposals submitted for consideration under the Ninth Work Plan Request for Proposals. The work plans for these investigations were printed in the Ninth Work Plan. One is the Education Development Component, the Philippines component of which has been taken up by the lead Philippines Project. The other is the Aquaculture Systems Modeling Research project previously carried out at the University of California, Davis. One Reproduction Control project (9RCR6) was funded but later modified to restrict the scope of research, and another reproduction control project (9RCR7) was cancelled due to a lack of success with the induction protocol. These modifications are documented in Section D.

There is no longer a procedure for requesting approval of work plan changes from the Technical Committee (TC) and Program Management Office (PMO). Instead, researchers will provide notice of work plan changes by completing a form developed by the Technical Progress Subcommittee (TPS) of the TC to be submitted to the PMO along with other annual reporting elements. The information collected on the form will serve the TPS, the External Evaluation Panel, and others in evaluating progress on Ninth Work Plan projects. Project Leaders are still advised to contact the Management Entity if changes cause the research to differ significantly from that in the original approved work plan. Subsequent addenda, if any, will be published annually.