STATEMENT BY DR. F. BRIAN DAVY AND MR. P. FLORES
Observers from
International Development Research Centre, Singapore
IDRC activities in the region which are of interest to NACA and member countries can be grouped into the following categories:
a) Research
IDRC supports applied research projects in a variety of areas of fisheries in Asia. Aquaculture has been an area of priority support and most countries of the region are cooperating on a bilateral basis in research disciplines such as breeding, nutrition, disease, genetics and culture management.
b) Training
As part of these research projects, IDRC has provided both preproject and in-project training. In the past year, collaborative support of trainees to NACA training schemes have been developed and it is hoped that this can be expanded in the future. IDRC hopes that in addition to the present training curricula, specialized separate short-term training schemes not yet available in the region might be organized in areas such as induced breeding, cage culture, fish disease and bivalve culture to allow further development of regional manpower in selected disciplines.
Under IDRC's newly instituted Fellowship Programme in the Singapore Regional Office further support may be possible. IDRC shares with NACA the hope that a self-sustaining regional training programme can be developed and maintained.
c) Information
IDRC has recently signed an agreement with some of the NACA Lead Centres for the use of the MINISIS on-line data base management system. Related activities in fisheries information are being supported by IDRC with SEAFDEC (SAFIS) and further support to other groups in the region including NACA is being discussed as a result of a recent SEAFDEC/IDRC Regional Fishery Information Science Meeting.
d) Communications
IDRC through its Communications Division and directly through its bilateral projects with member countries in the region will seek to ensure that all research information and results will be made available to NACA and member governments. At present, various IDRC films are planned to be used by the RLCP as video-tape materials for training needs.
IDRC support in the region is documented in:
“Organizations/Agencies Concerned with Fisheries Development in Southeast Asia”
IDRC would like to take this opportunity to commend NACA for its work to date and hope that our collaboration can be broadened.
