ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

SMALL-SCALE FRESHWATER RURAL AQUACULTURE DEVELOPMENT:

COUNTRY CASE STUDIES IN

BANGLADESH, PHILIPPINES, AND THAILAND

(Supplementary Appendix)

July 2004
 ABBREVIATIONS

ADB – Asian Development Bank

AIT – Asian Institute of Technology
AOP – Aqua Outreach Program
BAAC – Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives
BADC – Belgian Administration for Development Cooperation
BAS – Bureau of Agricultural Statistics
BBS – Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
BFAR – Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
BFRI – Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute
CADP – Command Area Development Project
CDR – complex, diverse, risk prone
CLSU – Central Luzon State University
DANIDA – Danish International Development Assistance
DEGITA – Dissemination and Evaluation of Genetically Improved Tilapia
Species in Asia
DENR – Department of Environment and Natural Resources
DFID – Department for International Development
DO – dissolved oxygen
DOF – Department of Fisheries
ENSO – El Niño Southern Oscillation
EUS – epizootic ulcerative syndrome
FAC – Freshwater Aquaculture Center
FAO – Food and Agriculture Organization
FARMC – Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council
FBC – fish breeding center
FCR – feed conversion ratio
GDP – gross domestic product
GIFT – genetically improved farmed tilapia
GMF – Grameen Matsha Foundation
GMT – genetically male tilapia
GST – Genomar Supreme Tilapia
HACCP – hazard analysis critical control point
ICLARM – International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management
LGU – local government unit
MAEP – Mymensingh Aquaculture Extension Project
MDIS – Meghna-Dhonagoda Irrigation System
NESDP – National Economic and Social Development Plan
NFEP – Northwest Fisheries Extension Project
NFFTC – National Freshwater Fisheries Technology Center
NGO – nongovernment organization
NPK – nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium
PAMB – Protected Area Management Board
PFO – Provincial Fisheries Office
PRC – People's Republic of China
 QUEDANCOR – Quedan Rural Credit and Guarantee Corporation
RA – Republic Act
SEAFDEC – Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center
SIS – small indigenous species
SRT – sex-reversed tilapia
TAO – Tambon Administrative Organization
TSP – triple super phosphate
TVS – training and visit system
VFPDP – Village Fish Pond Development Project
VOSD – Voluntary Organization for Social Development
WHO – World Health Organization

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

C – Celsius (centigrade)
cm – centimeter
g – gram
ha – hectare
kg – kilogram
km – kilometer
km2 – square kilometer
m – meter
m2 – square meter
m3 – cubic meter
t – metric ton

NOTE

In this report, "$" refers to US dollars.

Director General, Operations Evaluation Department : Eisuke Suzuki

Director, Operations Evaluation Division 1 : Graham Walter
Evaluation Team Leader : Njoman Bestari
 CONTENTS

Page

FOREWORD iv
SUMMARY v
MAPS ix

CASE STUDY 1: OVERVIEW OF SMALL-SCALE FRESHWATER 1

AQUACULTURE IN BANGLADESH

A. Background 1
B. Social Dimensions of Rural Poverty 3
C. Freshwater Aquaculture Systems 4
D. Freshwater Fish Markets 9
E. Employment 9
F. ADB Support to Freshwater Aquaculture Development 10
G. Safeguarding Freshwater Aquaculture 13
H. Lessons Learned 15
I. Ways to Reach the Poor 17

CASE STUDY 2: FARMING CARPS IN LEASED PONDS BY GROUPS IN 20

CHANDPUR, BANGLADESH

A. Background 20
B. Methods and Sources 22
C. Biophysical Features of the Case Study Area 23
D. Fish Farming Technology and Management 24
E. Livelihood Assets 25
F. Markets and Marketing Agents 31
G. Conclusions 33

CASE STUDY 3: LIVELIHOOD PROFILES OF FISH FARMERS IN 35

KISHOREGANJ, BANGLADESH

A. Background 35
B. Methods and Sources 36
C. Fish Farm Operation and Management 36
D. Profile of Small-Scale Fish Farmers 41

CASE STUDY 4: OVERVIEW OF FRESHWATER AQUACULTURE OF 48

TILAPIA IN THE PHILIPPINES

A. Introduction 48
B. History 49
C. Production and Consumption 51
D. Prices, Margins, Elasticity, and Farm Incomes 53
E. Accessing Inputs for Tilapia Farming 55
F. Accessing Support Services 63
G. Marketing Tilapia 65
H. Lessons Learned 68
 Page

CASE STUDY 5: FARMING TILAPIA IN PONDS IN CENTRAL LUZON, 71

PHILIPPINES

A. Background 71
B. Biophysical Characteristics 72
C. Socioeconomic and Institutional Perspectives 74
D. Technology and Management 76
E. Profile of Tilapia Farmers 82
F. Transforming Processes 85
G. Natural Resources Management 89
H. Environment 90
I. Fish Quality 92
J. Crisis and Coping Strategies 93
K. Outcomes 93
L. Conclusions 94

CASE STUDY 6: TILAPIA CAGE FARMING IN LAKE TAAL, BATANGAS, 95

PHILIPPINES

A. Background 95
B. Biophysical Characteristics 97
C. Socioeconomic and Institutional Attributes 98
D. Technology and Management 99
E. Profiles of Tilapia Cage and Nursery Farmers 105
F. Transforming Processes 109
G. Natural Resources Management 113
H. Environment 115
I. Fish Quality 117
J. Crisis and Coping Strategies 118
K. Outcomes 118
L. Conclusions 119

CASE STUDY 7: OVERVIEW OF SMALL-SCALE FRESHWATER 120

AQUACULTURE IN THAILAND

A. Background 120
B. Historical Development 123
C. Biophysical Features 123
D. Technology and Management 124
E. Accessing Markets 126
F. The Roles of Government in Aquaculture Extension 128
G. Community-Based Rural Aquaculture Development 129
H. Development Policy for Small-Scale Freshwater Aquaculture 131
I. Safeguards for Freshwater Aquaculture 133
J. Lessons Learned 134
K. Ways to Benefit the Poor 135
 Page

CASE STUDY 8: DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGY AND EXTENSION 137

FOR SMALL-SCALE FISH FARMS IN NORTHEASTERN
THAILAND

A. Background 137
B. Development of Appropriate Technology 141
C. Extension of Appropriate Technology 149
D. Institutional Issues 153
E. Lessons Learned 154

Njoman Bestari, senior evaluation specialist (team leader) was responsible for the preparation
of this report. Maria Rosa Ortega, evaluation officer, supported the study with research
assistance in Manila. Several consultants collaborated in this study: Nesar Ahmed (research
associate, Bangladesh), Peter Edwards (aquaculture development specialist), Brenda Katon
(research associate, Philippines), Alvin Morales (rural economist, Philippines), and Roger Pullin
(Aquatic Resources Management Specialist). Cherdsak Virapat and Supawat Komolmarl
collaborated with the team on the preparation of two case studies in Thailand.
 FOREWORD

Finding suitable aquaculture development approaches to open up livelihood

opportunities for the rural poor remains a challenge. The poor face many constraints to adopting
fish farming because of lack of access to capital and resources, vulnerability, and aversion to
risks. Fish farmers need appropriate skills, land and water, financial capital, organizational
arrangements, physical facilities, and infrastructure.

However, there are considerable opportunities for the entry of poor people into
aquaculture through low-cost technologies and help to secure access to and control of
resources. This is not merely a question of focused targeting toward the poor. It demands a
comprehensive understanding of contextual circumstances, operating environments, and
enabling conditions.

This report comprises 8 case studies—3 in Bangladesh, 3 in the Philippines, and 2 in

Thailand. They were prepared as part of a special evaluation study conducted by the
Operations Evaluation Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on small-scale
freshwater rural aquaculture development. The case studies probed various aspects of
freshwater aquaculture in different and diverse settings. Together, they provide a representative
selection of freshwater aquaculture practices in the context of farmers’ or operators’ access to
livelihood capital assets (human, social, natural, physical, and financial capitals), and processes
that influence outcomes in terms of incomes, employment, nutrition, and natural resource
sustainability. The key transforming processes examined were markets; public and private
institutions; facilities, infrastructure, and services; legal framework and development policies;
aquatic resources management and the environment; and various safeguards to sustain
freshwater aquaculture.

The individual studies provide many lessons for development practitioners that are
useful not only for ADB staff, but for research and development workers in all institutions—
public, private, nongovernmental, and international—working toward poverty reduction in
developing countries of Asia.

Eisuke Suzuki
Director General
Operations Evaluation Department
 SUMMARY

This compilation of case studies provides up-to-date portraits of the small-scale

freshwater farming subsector in three countries—Bangladesh, Philippines, and Thailand. In
each country, one or more features of particular interest from the point of view of poverty
reduction have been selected and treated in detail. In Bangladesh, the benefits to the poor of a
project that gave groups of the poor, mainly women, access to fish farming are outlined; a
second study shows how a simple but effective fish farming technology was taken up by the
poor and how the benefits spread to intermediaries and markets. In the Philippines, the focus
was on tilapia, which dominates freshwater aquaculture there, and on socioeconomic aspects of
the two main farming systems, ponds and cages. In Thailand, the study examined how an
appropriate technology was developed and disseminated in a resource-poor area in the
northeastern part of the country.

Bangladesh

Case study 1, an overview of small-scale freshwater aquaculture in Bangladesh, was

designed to investigate the countrywide significance of freshwater aquaculture, social
dimensions of rural poverty among farmers, major aquaculture systems, fish markets,
employment in aquaculture, and the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) support to aquaculture
development. The freshwater aquaculture systems have improved greatly over the past
2 decades. Freshwater aquaculture, mostly small-scale farms, accounts for more than one third
of total fisheries production in the country. However, there is still much potential for gain by
rationalizing the choice of species used for farming and in comprehensive programs to conserve
genetic diversity and produce quality broodstock. The importance of secure access to land and
water and to microfinance in assisting the poor to access small-scale aquaculture is highlighted.

Case study 2, farming carps in leased ponds by groups in Chandpur District, outlines a
project—part of a larger project financed by ADB to improve livelihoods in the District—that
brought freshwater aquaculture to the poor in an irrigation area. The aim was to capitalize on a
low-cost technology based on carp polyculture. The project organized the poor, primarily
women, into 175 groups totaling nearly 2,600 people; trained them in the technology; helped
them to acquire fishponds; and provided them with microfinance services. The study found that
the project helped unemployed, underemployed, marginal, and landless people. It describes the
socioeconomic conditions of the group members, their perceptions of the financial and health
benefits of this form of aquaculture, empowerment of women members, and the constraints to
continuing and increasing their operations. Also described are the characteristics of other parts
of the subsector—the fish traders, seed traders, and harvesters—which are also benefiting from
the growth of small-scale aquaculture in the area.

Case study 3, illustrating livelihood profiles of fish farmers in Kishoreganj, was

undertaken in the Greater Mymensingh area, representing a major region in Bangladesh for
freshwater fish farms. This area was targeted from 1988 to 1997 under an ADB-financed project
to promote fish farming through the establishment of demonstration fishponds and farmer-to-
farmer contact. This case study investigated common livelihood conditions of inland freshwater
fish farmers in Bangladesh. Described are the pond operations and management, which are
semi-intensive in nature, the village nurseries that supply most of the seed, the amounts of
organic and inorganic fertilizer used, harvest frequency, yields, and markets. Nearly all the
operators were primarily rice farmers or engaged in microenterprise. Fish farming is a
secondary occupation and third in terms of income generation. Nevertheless, all the households
surveyed confirmed that as a result of the aquaculture development, their food and fish
vi

consumption had increased, they had benefited from employment and cash income, and
anticipated that they would continue to benefit from aquaculture in the future.

Philippines

Case study 4, an overview of freshwater aquaculture of tilapia in the Philippines, was

prepared in order to investigate tilapia markets, prices, marketing channels, access to inputs
(fish seed, feed, fertilizers, land, and water), support services, and relevant lessons. The
f