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Fish for Tomorrow
Since initiating our "story of the month" series
just over 2 years ago, we have occasionally dedicated this space to
profiling staple crops - particularly ones that sometimes don't
get the attention they deserve, such as cassava, pearl millet and
sweetpotato. More recently, we have also focused here on important
developments with key natural resources - such as the Comprehensive
Assessment of Water Management for Agriculture and new support for
the conservation of plant genetic resources in genebanks. This
month we are profiling a major food source - fish - which are also
a critical natural resource.
- One billion people rely on fish as their main or sole source of
protein. In Bangladesh, for example, fish account for 46 percent of
the animal protein in human diets and in Indo-China for as much as
75 percent. For sub-Saharan Africa, the figure is 22 percent.
- About 35 million people are engaged, either full or part time,
in fishing and aquaculture. Most of these people (95 percent) live
in developing countries, and at least 5.8 million are among the
absolute poor, with incomes of a dollar or less per day.
- Small-scale inland fisheries across the developing world supply
more than 8 million tons of fish annually. In sub-Saharan Africa
alone, they provide food for 200 million people and livelihoods for
more than 10 million.
- Demand for fish has doubled over the last 40 years.
- Seventy-five percent of commercially important marine fisheries
are overfished or fished at their biological limits.
- Construction of dams on major rivers and tributaries, draining
of wetlands and pollution from agricultural runoff pose serious
threats worldwide to the ecosystems that sustain small-scale inland
fisheries and the communities that benefit from them.
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 Striking a Balance
Given the tremendous importance of fish for human welfare as
well as the huge pressures on this resource, what can we do to
ensure that we will have fish tomorrow?
To begin with, the role of fisheries needs to occupy a more
prominent place in development policies and actions, argues Stephen
Hall, Director General of the CGIAR-supported WorldFish Center.
Hall argues that, often, the benefits of wild-capture fisheries to
national economies and their role in providing a social safety net
(vital to human welfare, nutrition and food security) go
unrecognised. Failure to take into account these benefits, he adds,
makes it easier for governments to overlook the impact of their
decisions about land and water on fish stocks and the people who
rely on them.
The best way to overcome this oversight, Hall suggests, is
through active dialogue across sectors - including agriculture,
fisheries, environment, tourism, public works and women's
affairs. Such dialogue should build awareness of the need for
taking fisheries into account, using reliable information about the
costs and benefits of different development and fisheries
management choices.
When making decisions, a major challenge for policy makers is to
strike a balance that stimulates economic development and supports
rural livelihoods, ensures the long-term sustainability of fish
resources and meets broader objectives in nature conservation.
On the one hand, some marine scientists argue the only way to
replenish stocks of a growing number of fish species and conserve
nature is to allocate property rights and to close large areas
permanently to fishing. They warn that anything less is likely to
drive certain fish to extinction and permanently alter the delicate
dynamics of marine ecosystems.
On the other hand, though, governments are committed to reaching
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and improving the
livelihoods of millions of people in developing countries.
Allocating property rights and closing areas to fishing without
fully understanding the role fisheries play and the benefits they
deliver can sometimes be a step backwards.
When the UN General Assembly reviewed progress towards the MDGs
at the 5-year mark last September, it concluded that to achieve the
goals requires a radical change in approach. Part of the change
needed, Hall argues in an opinion piece published recently by
BBC News, is to incorporate the opportunities offered by
both wild-capture fisheries and aquaculture into policy formulation
and development investments.
Integrating Fish and Crops
For aquaculture, one such option that demonstrates well how one
can balance development with better management of natural resources
is an approach for integrating aquaculture and agriculture, which
WorldFish has devised with national partners in sub-Saharan
Africa.
According to a study completed last year by the CGIAR Science
Council, the approach has had significant impact in Malawi,
improving the well-being of producers and consumers. For more than
a decade, various agencies had tried to introduce aquaculture to
the country's farmers as a means of boosting fish supplies and
stemming a sharp decline in fish consumption and in food security
generally. But these efforts met with little success, and diffusion
was limited.
To heighten the appeal of aquaculture for farmers, WorldFish
scientists and colleagues with Malawi's Department of Fisheries
opted for a farmer participatory research approach. Under this
approach, a computer software program, called RESTORE, serves as an
aid to monitoring farmers' natural resource management, as they
integrate aquaculture with agriculture by using farm waste, crop
by-products and local biodiversity to provide nutrients in fish
ponds.
National agencies have adopted the approach, and many farmers
have taken up the technologies for integrating aquaculture and
agriculture, increasing their profits by as much as six-fold.
On-farm benefits take the form of extra food and income provided by
fish. In addition, the use of pond water and nutrients from pond
sediments has increased production of staples like maize as well as
higher value crops, such as vegetables and fruits.
Prospects for Africa
Having demonstrated the viability of integrated
aquaculture-agriculture for individual communities as well as whole
countries, the experience in Malawi can serve as a model elsewhere.
In this country and Zambia, more than 5,000 farmers have adopted
the system, and 200 extension agents have been trained in the
participatory approach that has proved critical for success.
Accounting for just 2 percent of the world's aquaculture
today, sub-Saharan Africa has tremendous potential for growth in
aquaculture. If it were to dedicate to this purpose just 5 percent
of the area that is suitable, the region could produce enough extra
fish to meet the needs of its increased population to 2020, at
current per-capita consumption rates.
Working closely with other international organizations and with
African governments, WorldFish has helped raise awareness of the
potential of fish to help Africa advance towards the Millennium
Development Goals. And as a result, policy makers have begun to
recognize the importance of fisheries issues and to act on them.
The challenge now is to build on this political commitment through
major new investments to secure the future of wild-capture
fisheries and ensure sustainable growth in aquaculture for
Africa.
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