1. Aquaculture extension services in the People's Republic of China

1.1 Background

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is located in the eastern part of Asia and the western shore of the Pacific Ocean. It is traditionally agricultural, with its rural population accounting for more than 70% of the country's total of about 1.2 billion. In 1994, agriculture comprised 35% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), of which 8.2% of value of output came from fisheries.

China has a long history of fisheries. Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and particularly during the 1980s, fisheries developed rapidly. In 1988, China ranked third among countries with an annual fisheries production of more than 10 million mt, and in 1990 was first among the world producers. In 1994, China had a record production of over 20 million mt, about 20 percent of the world total (Table 1).

Statistics indicate that the preceding ten years has been the fastest growing period in the country's history, with an annual growth rate of 13.2%, much higher than that of the world average. A rapidly developing aquaculture sector is one of the key factors for the development of fisheries at a fast pace. Aquaculture became the fastest growing sub-sector in fisheries. Its production increased even faster than that of capture fisheries, reaching more than 11.3 million mt in 1994. This accounted for 52.8% of the total fisheries production, and ranked first in the world.

Table 1. Percentage of China's fisheries production on world production.

1.2 Agro-physical features

1.2.1 Physical geography

The Chinese territory is vast, with the mainland extending over 5,000 km from east to west, and the distance from north to south traversing more than 5,500 km. Its land area of 9 600 000 km², makes it the third largest country in the world. Its coastline is 18,000 km, and the country faces the Bohai, Yellow, East China, and South China Seas to the east and to the south. More than 5,400 islands with an aggregate coastline of 14,000 km are scattered in the sea. Taiwan is the largest island, followed by Hainan, Chougming, Zhanshan, Donghai, Haitan and Dongshan islands.

China shares borders with 11 countries: Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam; her mainland boundary line is about 20,000 km.

The country is high in the west and low in the east; it could be best described as a flight of three levels, with the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau as the highest level in the west. Its average altitude is more than 4,000 m above sea level. Mount Qomolangma which is 8,848 m high is famous as "the roof of the world;" it is situated in the southwest edge of the plateau between China and Nepal.

From the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau to the north and east, the average altitude declines to 1,000-2,000 m, forming the second level. It includes the Yunnan-Guizhon, Huangtu and Inner Mongolia plateaus and the Sichuan, Talimu and Zhungeer basins.

The third level is along the line of Mount Daxinganling, Mount Taihang and the east edge of the Yunnan-Guizhon Plateau to the east. It consists mainly of hilly land (less than 1,000 m) and flatlands (less than 200 m) which include the three major plains - the Northeast, North China and the lower Yangtze Plains. These three plains have a total area of about one million km², and make up roughly one tenth of China's territory. They are the most densely populated in China.

China's topography is roughly classified into five major categories: 33 percent mountainous regions; 26 percent plateaus; 19 percent basins; 12 percent plains and 10 percent hilly areas.

1.2.2 Climate

The country's climate varies. There is no summer in the northern part of Heilongjiang Province, but no winter in Hainan Province. Four seasons are distinguished in the regions of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, but in the Yunnan-Guizhon Plateau it is as warm as spring throughout the year. Rainfall is considerable in the east and south, but it is rather dry in the northwest.

The climate in China has two basic features:

a. First, It is heavily affected by the monsoons. The Chinese continent faces the Pacific Ocean to the east, and the climate is therefore alternately affected by the dry and wet seasons. Beginning from September/October each year, until March/April of the following year, the north wind blows strongly and frequently towards the south, resulting in cold and dry winter and a sharp difference in temperature from the north to the south. From May to September, the south wind originating from the Pacific and Indian oceans provides heavy rains, and creates a warm and wet period. Annual rainfall is about 630 mm, mainly concentrated during the period, and the precipitation gradually decreases from the southeast to the northwest. Generally Guangdong and Taiwan Provinces have an annual precipitation of 2,000 mm, the Yangtze Basin 1,000-1,600 mm, and along the line from Qinling to Huaihe about 800 mm. The line from Daxinganling-Zhangjiahon-Lanzhow-Lasa has an annual precipitation of about 400 mm, and the semi-wet and semi-dry region of the country is divided by this line.

b. Second, China's climate condition is complex. The Chinese territory lies across 50 degrees latitude, and more than 60 degrees longitude. It is in tropical, subtropical and temperate zones. The eastern part faces the sea and this has a marine climate. The west part being of high altitude is dominated by a continental climate. Since the temperature decreases 6.6⁰ C for every 100 m in altitude, the average temperature of Nanjing in July is about 28⁰C, but only 12⁰C in Lasa, although Lasa is located in a slightly lower latitude than Nanjing.

January is the coldest month in most parts of China. In the northern part of Heilongjiang Province the average temperature in January is below -28⁰C, the lowest temperature reaching -50.1⁰C in some places. Along the line from Qingling to Huaihe, the temperature is around 0⁰C. This is a demarcation line as the lakes and rivers freeze in the area north of this line, but do not freeze to the south. Further down the southern part of the Laizhou peninsula, the temperature is about 16⁰ C in the same period, and about 24⁰C in the islands in the South China Sea. The average temperature difference from north to south is more than 50⁰C. However, July is the hottest month in most parts of China, but the temperature difference in the eastern part of China is only about 8⁰C from north to south. The highest temperature registered has been 47.6⁰C in the Tulufan Basin.

1.2.3 Hydrology

China has a network of rivers, lakes, streams, ponds and reservoirs spread all over the country. Inland water area totals 17.47 million ha, almost one-50th of the land area. Annual rainfall is about 6,000 billion m³, of which 2,600 billion m³ forms the country's water resources.

a. Rivers

China has numerous rivers; more than 1,500 have drainage basins of at least 1,000 km². The majority have outlets to the sea (the Pacific, Indian or Arctic oceans). All the major rivers - the Yangtze, Yellow, Heilongjiang, Pearl and Huai rivers - flow from west to east and empty into the Pacific. The Hujiang and the Yaluzanbuiang rivers in southwest China stream south into the Indian Ocean. The Eerqisi River which flows through the Sinkiang autonomous region, eventually finds its way to the Arctic Ocean.

The Yangtze River. Yangtze, the largest river in China - is 6,300 km long, and discharges about 1,000 billion m³ annually. It has a drainage basin of more than 1.8 million km², and a large number of tributaries, the major ones being the Jinshajiang, Elongjiang, Daduhe, Mingjiang, Tuojiang, Jiolingjiang, Wujiang, Hanshui, Xianjiang, Ganjiang rivers. There are more than 1,700 lakes along the river, covering about 2.4 million ha, almost one third of the total lake water area in the country. Inland water fisheries flourish in this river basin.

The Yellow River. The Yellow River, the second largest river in China, has a mainstream 5,464 km long, which discharges about 66.1 billion m³ annually and has a drainage basin of more than 752,443 km². A group of lakes such as the Xingsuhai, Zaling, Eling lakes are situated in the river head area, and the Weishan, Dongping, Shushan, Nanyang, Zhaoyang, Dushan lakes are mainly distributed in Shandong Province, the lower reach of the river. Fisheries in this river basin do not flourish as those in the Yangtze, Pearl and Heilongjiang river basins.

Heilongjiang River. The Heilongjiang, the largest river in the northern part of China, flows in Chinese territory and has a course of 3,101 km which discharges about 130 billion m³ annually. The main tributaries are the Songhujiang, Wusulijiang, Huma rivers; while the Dalai, Songhua, Xingkai, Jingpo, Wudalianchi lakes are connected to the river. The river freezes for about 4-6 months every year, but during summer the water temperature is above 20⁰C. Fish production in this river basin includes some coldwater species.

Pearl River. Pearl River, the largest in southern China, is composed of the Xijiang (2,214 km), Dongjiang (532 km), and Beijiang (468 km) rivers, of which the Xijiang is the mainstream. They join together in their lower reaches in the Pearl Delta. The drainage basin area totals about 423,700 km². The main tributaries in the upper reaches of the Xijiang and the Beijiang are the Linjiang, Quijiang, Yujiang, Zhenshui, and Wushui rivers, among others. The basin mostly lies in the subtropical zone; it receives the heaviest annual rainfall. It is also one of the most flourishing areas of freshwater fisheries in China.

The Huai River. The Huai River has a total length of 1,000 km, lies to the south of the Yellow River and north of the Yangtze. It originates from Mount Tongbai in Henan Province, and pours into the Hongze lake in Jiangsu Province, then flows into the Gaoyou Lake and finally empties into the Yangtze Rriver. The Sihe, Zhuganhe, Huanghe, Shihe, Guanhe, Honghe, Ruhe, Yinghe, Weihe rivers are the main tributaries and the Wabu, Chengdong, Chengxi, Anfengtang lakes, connect to it. The Huai River basin abounds in fisheries resources.

The Yaluzangbujiang and Nujiang Rivers. Yaluzangbujiang is the largest river in the Tibet autonomous region. The upper part is called the Maguan River. The river flows from west to east in the northern part of Tibet, cuts through Mount Himalaya, turns to the south and then enters India. It has a length of about 1,787 km in Tibet with a drainage area of 251,590 km². Nujiang River has its source in Mount Tanggula and the upper part is called Nagu River. The river flows through Sichun and Yunnan provinces, and enters Myanmar; it is about 2,000 km long, two-thirds of which is in China. It is a typical type of an encased river in the southwest of China.

b. Lakes

Of the thousands of lakes in the country, 2,800 have a water surface area of more than 1 km² while there are 130 lakes exceed 100 km² in area. Most freshwater lakes are scattered along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze and Huai rivers in East China. The saltwater lakes are found in West China where they are fed by inland rivers where the weather is dry and cold. Some of the more famous are the following:

Boyang Lake. The largest freshwater lake in China, Boyang has an area of 3,583 km² when water depth is 21 m. It is connected to the Yangtze River and the water depth fluctuates greatly from flood season to the dry season (21m to 12m).

The Dongting Lake. Dongting lies south of the Yangtze River in Hunan Province. It is 150 km long and 110 km wide, with a water surface area of 2,820 km² during the flood season. It is connected with the Yangtze River to the north. Through the ages it has been divided into many large and small bodies of water by enormous deposits of silt from the rivers which feed into it.

The Taihu Lake. Taihu, formed through the accumulation of silt from the Yangtze and Jiantangjiang rivers in an ancient gulf of the East China Sea, lies south of the Yangtze River on the Jiangsu-Zhejiang border. It has a total water area of 2,425 km² and is dotted with 48 islands.

The Hongze Lake. Hongze is one of the five largest lakes in China. It has a water area of 1,960 km² (at a depth of 12.5 m), and is located north of the Yangtze in Jiangsu province.

The Qinghai Lake. Also known as "Koko Nor" (or blue lake in Mongolia, the Qinghai lies in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. It is the largest salt lake in the country, covering an area of 4 583 km². The water salinity is about 12-13 per thousand.

The Luobu bo Lake ((Lop Nor). This lake is in the eastern part of Sinkiang's Talimu Basin. With an area of 25,570 km², Luobo bo Lake is also known as the "moving lake" because it has changed its position three times, following changes in the course of the Peacock River which flows into it.

c. Reservoirs

A barrier reservoir and the oldest in China (built more than 1,000 years ago), the Dongjianhu consists of seven dams and five drainage gates. The water can be drained completely, and it irrigates some paddy fields. The Yuanyangchi, Naodehai, Xiaofengman, Erlongshan reservoirs among others have existed for a long time with a comparatively large water area. However, only after liberation were several reservoirs constructed. In 1994, there were 84,558 reservoirs with a total water storage capacity of 475 billion m³. There are 381 large scale reservoirs, each with a water storage capacity of more than 100 million m³; 2,572 medium-scale (10-100 million m³⁾ and 81,605 small-scale (0.1-10 million m³⁾. Most were built to regulate runoff or river flow, and store water for agricultural, industrial and urban uses. Closer attention has been given to the construction of these reservoirs for fish culture.

1.2.4 Demography

In 1994, China had a total population of 1.19 billion or a density of 123/km², more than 20 percent of mankind. The Chinese Government has placed emphasis on population control, treating it as a basic state policy since the initiation of reform and opening up of the country to the west. The natural population growth rate has dropped gradually from 14.4 per thousand in 1990 to 11.2 per thousand in 1994. During this year, the employed sector of the population numbered 614 million, of which 72.6 percent lived in the rural areas and depended primarily on agriculture for their livelihood.

China has 56 nationalities, of which the Han nationality accounts for 94 percent of the total population. Mandarin is the most common language used in the country.

The pure feudalism society in China ended with the Opium War and the advent of foreign domination. Before liberation in 1949, China was semi-colonial and semi-feudal; it is now socialist. It has 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and 3 cities under the direct jurisdiction of the central government (Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin). Under the provincial level there are 191 cities, 148 prefectures and 2,171 county administrative units including 323 municipalities classified as counties (excluding the cities and municipality under Taiwan Province).

Immediately after liberation, the country transformed its system from feudal exploitative land ownership to land reform and then collectivisation and communes. The Great Leap Forward movement was carried out beginning 1958 and the Cultural Revolution, a political movement, was undertaken from 1966 to 1976; both movements were disastrous to the nation's economy. Since 1978, the government has revised its policies, opening up the country to the world and enlivening the domestic economy. In the early 1980s, an economy largely based on agricultural households replaced that of people's communes. Most counties adopted the Household Production Responsibility System. Under the new economic reform system, the government ceased to impose indicators for agricultural products (except for specific ones) from peasants by centralised and assigned purchases. Instead, the contracted and marketed purchases were carried out according to various conditions.

The new economic reform also included the opening up of many cities to foreign investments. A concerted effort was made to attract foreign investments in the coastal area, particularly by establishing a series of economic development zones extending from Dalian in the north to Beihai city in the south, and especially in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Shanghai, Dalian and Tianjin. The effects of the new economic reform policies are now apparent all over the country.

During the last 16 years, the country's economic system has been largely geared toward the market-oriented economy from the central planning economy, and the major national economic indices have increased by several times. In 1994, the overall real GDP growth rate of the country was 11.8 percent. This socio-economic performance has been among the best in the Asia Pacific Region. Along with the economic growth, per capita net income of rural and urban population grew from 134 yuan and 316 yuan in 1978 to 1,221 yuan and 3,179 yuan in 1994, respectively. However, the very rapid pace of economic growth (14.2% in 1992 and 13.5% in 1993) and worsening inflation are the prominent problems in the national economy in recent years. It is stressed that to maintain a sustained, rapid and healthy development of the national economy, the pace of development should be appropriately handled, neither too slow nor too high. The inflation rate has been brought under control, reduced from 21.7 percent in 1994 to 14.8 percent in 1995. The income differentials between urban and rural residents and the difference in regional economic development have elicited wide attention of the society.

China in 1994 had 1,065 institutions of higher learning and 800,000 primary and middle schools at different levels with enrolment at 188 million. The nine-year compulsory education is free; the senior high school and tertiary education levels are now to be paid for. The government places stress on orienting education towards modernisation and geared towards the outside world and the future, with the aim of raising the educational qualifications of the entire population.

Agriculture is the foundation and the most crucial sector of China's economy. The sector includes crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries, which accounts for 35 percent of the country's GDP, is an important source of income for some 231.6 million agriculture households comprising a total population of 915.2 million. In 1994, agriculture GDP increased to 1,575 billion yuan from 139.7 billion yuan in 1978, of which foodgrain and crops accounted for 58.3 percent, forestry 3.8 percent, livestock 29.7 percent, and fisheries 8.2 percent.

Land, inland waters and the surrounding territorial seas are State property. The government has placed great emphasis on comprehensive and intensive use of land and water resources for agriculture, including fisheries. China's arable land totals 137 million ha, only 14.3 percent of the total land area. The arable area is mainly concentrated in the eastern plains where soil is in a better condition and climate is more suitable. Farming systems are therefore intensive, with heavy input of labour, fertiliser and small machinery. The most important grain crops are paddy, wheat, maize, millet, sorghum and tubers; the main industrial crops are cotton, soybean, peanuts, rapeseed, jute, ramie, sugarcane, sugarbeet, and tobacco Total grain crop production reached 445 million mt in 1994, more than ten times higher than that before Liberation. In fact, the arable land area in China accounts for only 7 percent of the world's total, but it supports the livelihood of 22 percent of the world population.

Irrigation is considered as the lifeblood of agriculture, and the government has given priority to water conservation in various development programmes. The irrigated area amounted to about 48.7 million ha in 1994. The water bodies developed for irrigation and drainage purposes are invariably utilised for fisheries.

China, still a developing country, recently formulated the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000) and the Long-Term Target for the year 2010. The major objectives for national economic and social development during the Ninth Five-Year Plan are to complete and implement the second-stage strategic plan for modernisation - that is, by 2000, when China's population reaches about 1.4 billion (300 million more than in 1980), poverty will have been basically eliminated; peoples' lives will have reached a relatively comfortable standard; the establishment of the modern enterprise system will have been accelerated; and the socialist market economic system will have been established.

The major long-term target for the year 2010 is to double the 2000 GNP, enabling people to lead an even more comfortable life.

1.3 Fisheries

Although China has had a fairly long history of fisheries, both capture and aquaculture, before 1949 fisheries performance was very poor. Total fisheries production was only 0.45 million mt in 1949. But the founding of New China has seen a larger emphasis placed on agricultural development, including fisheries. By 1957, fisheries production had reached 3.12 million mt, but development slowed down after this period due to improper policies and management. Since 1978, the government has placed unprecedented emphasis on national economic development and modernisation. Since the adoption of the economic reform, the rural reform programme has been successfully implemented and thus fisheries also rapidly developed through the introduction of the production responsibility system, gradual relaxation of price control for all aquatic products and increase of government investment. China's fisheries has achieved remarkable progress, its production ranking first in the world since 1990. Production increased from 4.7 million mt in 1978 to 21.46 million mt in 1994 (Table 2).

The share of China's fisheries production in the total world fisheries production substantially grew from 4.8 percent in 1950 to 18.0 percent in 1993. Per capita supply went up from 0.9 kg in 1949 to 17.9 kg in 1994, and per capita fish consumption rose from 0.5 kg in 1949 to 2.9 kg in 1978 and 8.0 kg in 1992. The contribution of fish to the animal protein intake of the country is about 20 percent. In 1994, the total value of fisheries production was about 129.8 billion yuan, contributing about 8.2 percent to the total value of agricultural production (1 575 billion yuan at current prices).

Fisheries and related occupations are an important source of livelihood in the rural area. The fisheries population was about 16.05 million in 1994, 1.4 percent of the total agricultural population in 1994. About 10.8 million were engaged in fisheries, of which 6.1 million were part-time fishermen. Of the 4.7 million full-time fishermen, 2.1 million were engaged in capture fisheries, and 2.6 million in aquaculture. About, 312,963 were employed by state-owned fisheries enterprises, of which 105,378 were engaged in aquaculture.

Table 2. China: Fisheries production, 1949-1994 (volume in mt)

Along with the rapid increase in production, the average annual income of a full-time fishermen substantially increased from 268 yuan in 1978 to 5,840 yuan in 1994 resulting in the rapid growth of the labour force in fisheries. During 1978-1994, about 1.2 million new entrants were recorded, out of whom about 60 percent came from the rural jobless poor. However, fisheries has played an important role in absorbing rural surplus labourers and alleviating poverty.

In China, over 70 percent of the aquatic products are sold fresh or in frozen form for a short period of time for direct human consumption. In 1994, there were 4,570 (of which 669 were state-owned) cold-storage and fisheries processing factories, with a total staff complement of 37,084 all over the country. Cold storage capacity was 1.11 million mt/batch; freezing capacity 60,869 mt/day; and ice-making capacity 51,205 mt/day. The annual amount of processed aquatic products was 3.35 million mt. By weight frozen products made up 70.7 percent, canned 0.22 percent, dried 8.8 percent, cooked 2.7 percent. Apart from the 3,000 kinds of seafood, industrial articles and medications were produced in these plants. In 1994, it exported 633,000 mt aquatic products valued at USD2.51 billion, which accounted for 2 percent of the total value of the national foreign exchange earnings. Frozen shrimp and freshwater live fish comprised the major bulk of exported aquatic products. During the same year, it imported 1.2 million mt of aquatic products, mainly fish meal and pollack, valued at USD853 million.

On 20 January 1986, the National People's Congress adopted the Fisheries Law of the People's Republic of China, putting it into effect as of 1 July 1986. The law provides that the State will encourage people to develop aquaculture, actively propagate fishery resources, protect fishery workers' lawful rights and interests, develop offshore and deepsea fisheries as well as restrict inland and inshore fishing intensity. In the early 1980s, the government was already issuing fishery licences, licences for building fishing vessels as well as aquaculture licences.

Fisheries is generally divided into four subsectors: marine capture; freshwater capture; marine aquaculture and freshwater aquaculture.

1.3.1 Capture fisheries

Capture fisheries, especially marine capture fisheries, is the main component of fisheries production (Table 3). It accounted for about 90 percent of the total aquatic production in the early 1950s, and 74.3 percent in 1978. The bulk of capture fisheries products comes from marine capture, and only a small amount from freshwater capture fisheries.

The Chinese mainland has a coastline of 18,400 km. The seas covering a total water area of 4.73 million km² and the fishing area within the continental shelf of 200 m total about 1.48 million km². Thousands of rivers along the coastal zone bring abundant nutrients to the seas, and form an excellent habitat for the fishery resources. There are more than 1,500 fish species along the coast and over 200 species of economic value are fished commercially. In 1994, the top ten in terms of production were hairtail, anchovy, round scad, chub mackerel, northern mauxia shrimp, crabs, mackerel, filefish, cuttlefish and red coat.

About 1.1 million full-time fishermen are engaged in marine capture fisheries. The marine fishing fleet consists of 259,297 vessels. Most are small motorised boats owned by the collective or private individuals. Over 1,000 vessels mainly powered with 600 hp engines are owned by 39 state-run enterprises. The major share (or up to 85 percent) of marine capture production is accounted for by collective or individual fishermen; these are mainly from the coastal fishing area. For instance, the 1994 production from Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea accounted for 10.1 percent, 16.6 percent, 36.6 percent and 29 percent of the total marine capture production, respectively. Capture from other fishing areas constituted only 7.7 percent.

Distant water fisheries commenced only in 1985, and its feasibility was a subject of dispute for some years. By the end of 1994, 948 fishing vessels were operating in waters off West Africa, North and South America, the South Pacific and the Middle East under a series of bilateral agreements. The total annual production was about 0.69 million tons.

Chinese trawling is a major operation. Production by different types of operations in 1994 were: trawler 43%, set net 19%, gill net 13.2%, long line 2.7%, purse seine 4.5% and other fishing gear about 17.6%.

Table 3. Volume of production, capture and aquaculture sectors (in ‘ooo mt)

Marine capture fisheries production increased from 2.77 million tons in 1981 to 8.96 million tons in 1994, representing an average annual increase of 476,000 mt. But reverse factors were also noted: a decline in traditional marine fish species, and a significant increase instead in the production of small pelagic fish and crustaceans. On the whole, most Chinese seas located between the Asian continent and the Pacific Ocean are semi-closed marine areas and lack world-wide species such as pollock, tuna, and cod, and two-thirds of the productive species are local temperate or warmwater species with rather small stocks. The biomass in these marine areas is only 3.02 ton/km², much lower than that of the South Pacific (18.2 ton/km²) and Japanese Sea (11.8 ton/km²).

China's freshwater fisheries consists of more than 774 species; half are edible fish of economic value. More than 50 species are very common in the market. The most dominant cyprinoid constitutes more than 80 percent of the total amount distributed all over the country. Freshwater capture fisheries is carried out in inland lakes, rivers and reservoirs, using various fishing gears to capture fish, crustacean and mollusc. Full-time fishermen number about 0.56 million in addition to hundreds of thousands part-time fishermen involved in this activity. About 50-60 percent of the production come from the Yangtze valley, 10-15 percent from the Heilongjiang and Nenjiang valleys and 4-6 percent from the Pearl Valley.

At the beginning of the 1950s, freshwater capture held an important position in the country's fisheries. Annual production was 85,000 mt in 1949, representing about 18.9% of the total fisheries production and 85% of the freshwater fisheries production. It went up to 668,000 mt in 1960, more than seven-fold increase in 11 years; and thereafter steadily decreased, owing to a severe decline of natural resources. In 1978, freshwater capture production reached 296,000 mt, the lowest level in 30 years. As a result of this low level, improvements were instituted in fisheries management, including control of fishing activities, establishment of closed season and closed areas in open water bodies and implementation of stocking programmes. Production of freshwater capture fisheries thus went up gradually in the 1980s, reaching a record high of 1.15 million mt in 1994.

But today, freshwater capture fisheries accounts for only 5.3 percent of the country's total fisheries production and 12.7 percent of freshwater fisheries production because of problems related to water conservation, pollution, and changes in the natural environment and the ecological balance resulting in a serious decline in fisheries resources of natural water bodies.

1.3.2 Aquaculture

Aquaculture in China is age-old as an activity but young as a large-scale undertaking. It is believed that the country engaged in fish culture as early as 1,100 BC. Some 2,400 years ago, Fan Li, the premier of the State of Yue wrote "On Pisciculture" (Yang Yu Jing) which is regarded as the world's first monograph in this field.

But aquaculture developed slowly over a comparatively long stretch of time. In 1949, total production was 20,000 mt, of which 15,000 mt was from inland aquaculture and 5,000 mt from marine aquaculture. This comprised 4.5 percent of the total fisheries production. Since the founding of the new China, particularly around the late 1970s, the economic reform policies have spurred aquaculture to grow at a fast pace. As a result, aquaculture production in 1994 totalled 11.35 million mt, representing 52.8 percent of the total fisheries production (Table 4). Aquaculture has become a young large-scale commercial enterprise all over the country.

In 1978, inland aquaculture area was 2.73 million ha and its corresponding production was 762,254 mt. It has since then expanded to 4.45 million ha with a production of 7.89 million mt in 1994. On average, it increased by about 450 000 mt annually, and grew at a rate of about 58 percent per year, indicating that inland aquaculture is the fastest growing subsector in fisheries.

Based on the different environments of water bodies, inland aquaculture is classified into culture in pond, lake, reservoir, river and ditch, paddy field and in others such as water bodies in saline-alkali low-lying wasteland and in hot springs.

At present, pond fish culture is the major source of inland aquaculture production. In 1994 pond fish culture yielded 5,968,965 mt accounting for 75.6 percent of total production; lake, 476,272 mt (6.1 percent); reservoir 656,836 mt (8.3 percent); river and ditch 387 002 mt (4.9 percent); paddy field 206,915 mt (2.6 percent); and others 200,606 mt (2.5 percent), as shown in Table 4.

The major production areas of inland aquaculture are concentrated along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers, especially in the delta areas. The three most productive regions are: Taihu area of Jiangsu Province; Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou area in Zhejiang Province; and Fushan area in Guangdong Province. The top three producing provinces are Guangdong, Hubei and Jiangsu each of which exceed 1 million mt in annual production.

Table 4. Aquaculture production, area and per unit yield (1994)

The traditional culture species are silver carp, bighead carp, grass carp, common carp, crucian carp, Chinese bream, mud carp, and black carp. In recent years, culture of tilapia, rainbow trout, catfish, shrimps and crabs as well as some new hybrids has made significant progress (Table 5). The filter feeding species such as silver carp and bighead carp account for 56-65 percent of the total production, the herbivorous species such as grass carp and Chinese bream, 20 percent; the omnivorous species such as common carp, mud carp, crucian carp and tilapia, 12-21 percent and the carnivorous species such as black carp and crustaceans, only about 7-8 percent.

Table 5. Inland aquaculture production (in mt) by major species (1979-1994)

The outstanding characteristics of Chinese inland aquaculture are as follows:

a). Integrated culture: fishery-agriculture-animal husbandry-industry integration, e.g. fish, ducks, pigs, vegetables, feeds and processing plants;

b). Polyculture: mixed rearing of some species in the same water body so as to fully utilising water body and raising per unit area yield;

c). Chinese carp culture: mainly herbivorous and omnivorous fishes with a short foodchain, principally living on natural food in water bodies added with some fertiliser.

These applications and advanced techniques are also well-known in the world.

Marine aquaculture or mariculture has a long history in China. About 2,000 years ago, fishermen began to culture oyster by planting wooden or bamboo stakes in mudflats along the coastline of Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Along the country's 18,400 km coastline, there are 797,000 ha mudflats and 1.33 million ha shallow waters within 10m isobath, which is considered feasible for mariculture. But only 8 percent has been utilised until 1978 when production was only 449,500 mt. Mariculture rapidly expanded beginning 1979, with area reaching 653 530 ha in 1994 and production, 3.45 million mt (Table 4), six times higher than that in 1978.

Before 1980, kelp, laver and mussel were the major cultured species, accounting for 98 percent of production. The culture species greatly diversified during 1980s. In 1994 shrimp production reached 63,872 mt, finfish 101,110 mt and scallops,825 615 mt. As a result, the percentage of more valuable cultured shrimp, finfish and delicacies rose from 0.5 percent in 1978 to 35 percent in 1994 by weight but the increase by value was even much higher

1.3.3 Potential

China has a population of more than 1.2 billion which is estimated to reach 1.3 billion by the year 2000. Such rapid population growth will place a heavy burden on economic and social development. Pressures will be placed on the present arable land to provide the increasing population with sufficient food, particularly animal protein. Animal husbandry and fishery being the two major important sectors providing animal protein, the requirements for huge quantities of quality aquatic products will in turn spur aquatic production to develop at a high speed. The government has placed high emphasis on the development of agriculture including fisheries. Economic reforms have provided the proper environment for the fast growth of agriculture. But there is more potential for the country to further develop fisheries, especially aquaculture. The favourable conditions for aquaculture development are the following.

• The culture area can be further expanded. Only 25 percent of 2.4 million ha of cultivable mudflats and marine shallow waters area has been utilised. Of the 6.5 million ha cultivable inland waters, only about 66 percent are cultivated. The 3 million ha of cultivable saline-alkaline, low-lying wasteland by the rivers are not exploited, and only 35 percent of paddy fields are used for rice-cum-fish culture.

• It is possible to increase production per unit area in any culture fields.

• The newly developed culture systems such as netcage culture and pen culture, in large water bodies can be expanded rapidly.

• Further development of aquaculture techniques and promotion of extension services can play an important role in increasing production.

• Capture fisheries, through proper management and reasonable utilisation of natural resources, exploitation of new fishing grounds and new species, implementation of stocking programmes in the natural water bodies, and expansion of distant fisheries to some degree, will still be important aspects of the country's fisheries.

1.3.4 Problems and constraints in aquaculture development

From the socio-economic point of view, the problems and constraints are:

• Uneven development of aquaculture among provinces and regions in a province, due to varying degrees of development support by local administrative agencies.

• Intense competition for aquaculture development among agriculture, water conservation, land reclamation, hydroelectricity, navigation, tourism in the use of land and water.

• Water pollution caused by industrial waste, domestic sewage, chemical fertiliser and pesticides, deteriorating water quality and destruction of culture areas.

• Weakening enthusiasm for aquaculture development due to rising production cost and inflation.

• Insufficient support services such as processing, post-harvest treatment, transportation, and marketing system.

On the production side, problems and constraints of aquaculture activities are as follows:

• Poor condition of culture facilities. Most fishponds are shallow earthen ponds and 60 percent have not been repaired for years.

• Degradation of fry and seed quality as a result of continuous use of artificial breeding; and insufficient supply of fry and fingerlings in newly-developed areas.

• Low productivity per unit area due to the traditional culture practice of carrying out extensive culture systems on a small-scale; shortage of feed supply which cannot be overcome in the near future.

• Little knowledge on prevention, treatment and control of fish diseases.

• Lack or inadequacy of investment and credit for operations and further development.

1.3.5 Government plans for development and ongoing activities

After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the government implemented its land-to-the-peasants programme and social reforms, and formulated its First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957) thus achieving significant progress in its economic development. The Great Leap Forward was carried out in 1958 and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966. These two movements blocked the country's economic development one after another. But in spite of these drastic setbacks, China has moved ahead since the initiation of reform and opening to the outside world in 1978 and exerted serious effort to achieve modernisation.

The government implements five-year plans for national economic and social development, including fisheries. The Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the implementation of agricultural development plans, including those for the fishery sub-sector. The Bureau of Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture is particularly responsible for carrying out development and administrative plans and programmes on fisheries in cooperation with fisheries departments under provincial and municipal governments.

China has accorded high priority to agricultural and rural development in national development plans, and fisheries is one of the important sectors. The Bureau of Fisheries decides on detailed development objectives, strategies and production targets for fisheries and its sub-sectors year by year. In fact, although aquaculture has had centuries of tradition in China, it has not been accorded adequate attention and support except in recent years. However, since 1978 the government has adjusted its strategies and policies, and placed emphasis on the development of aquaculture. As a result, aquaculture production has increased tremendously, and become the fastest growing sub-sector in fisheries. In the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1991-1995), the fisheries development policies were the following:

Table 6. Major foreign-assisted aquaculture projects.

• Promotion of a balanced development of aquaculture, capture fisheries and processing, with special emphasis on aquaculture, processing and offshore fisheries.

• Conservation of coastal and offshore fishery resources and to rehabilitate damaged aquatic habitats.

• Development and improvement of aquaculture.

• Improvement of post-harvest, processing and marketing facilities.

• Encouragement of the utilisation of offshore and distant fisheries resources.

As a result of the successful implementation of the above policies, the production targets of fisheries have been achieved. Production reached more than 23 million mt in 1995, an increase of more than 9 percent over the 1994 report. Aquaculture production now accounts for more than 54 percent of the overall fisheries production in China.

In the Ninth Five-Year Plan, fisheries production is estimated to reach 28.5 million mt by the year 2000, 10 million mt more than that in 1993, of which aquaculture production will be over 17 million mt, accounting for 59 percent of total fisheries production. This fisheries production target means that per capita yield can reach 22.5 kg which may be a little bit higher than the world average. The total value of fisheries production will be 150 billion yuan (1990 constant price), accounting for 12 percent of the total value of agricultural production. The aquatic products export value will be more than USD4 billion.

Also, since 1983 several international organisations have supported China's fisheries development in various fields such as aquaculture development, fishery resources management, fishery education and training, etc. The major international organisations include the World Bank, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the International Funds For Agriculture Development. Up to the end of 1992, China had accepted funds aggregating USD900 million including about USD200 million in contributions and USD700 million in credit. About 20 projects have been implemented; three of them still in operation (Table 6). At the same time, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Canadian International Development Research Centre (CIDA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) extended support for some areas of China's fisheries development.