To start this discussion item, participants were asked to describe their approach to research, to identify what they considered to be the important research gaps, and to comment on what needed to be done and to fill those gaps. In view of the purpose of the meeting, most of the ensuing discussion centred on research needed rather than approaches to selecting the most important areas. Nevertheless, several instructive comments on the latter were offered.
Consideration of current trends in aquacultural development was seen as an important element of research planning, and several of these were offered for the group to consider. They included:
increasing intensification of production in order to better utilize scarce space
increasing use of pens and cages for fish production in public waters
increasing integration of fish with other crops
increasing use of brackish and marine systems
increasing attention to aqua-ranching systems.
Several suggested criteria for selecting important species or species groups, including their significance in supplying proteins to a large portion of the human populations, the generality of their distributions, and likelihood of a payoff in profitability. It was then suggested that, for those species selected, the factors limiting growth in production should be examined. Two categories of such factors can be considered:
factors which, when limiting, prevent any effective growth of culture activity, such as the ability to obtain sufficient seed stocks
those which, when removed, would improve the economy of production.
It was also recommended that generalized approaches to particular types of research be sought which might be more easily carried over into national research institutions.
The areas of research proposed by the participants for consideration as priority areas included:
improvement of aquacultural stocks and seed by genetic selection
establishing control over the full life cycle of many brackish water and marine species
study of brackishwater pond dynamics
study of the ecological impacts of transfer of species among regions
improving control over fish health
identification of disease organisms of tropical species of fish and shellfish
studies of conflicts in coastal zone management
development of indigenous species for local use and for use elsewhere when warranted
studies of rural technology in aquaculture.
detailed studies of a number of existing successful aquacultural projects to allow empirical development of design and operating guidelines.
There was general agreement to the need to widely distribute manuals and other publications giving up-to-date information on the results of research, especially in the context of specific culture problems and systems. A further need for all agencies concerned to keep each other informed on the production of such materials was noted.
The wide variety of opinion as to the types of research which were most deserving of international support clearly indicated the need for a more thorough discussion than would be possible in the large group. The chairman recommended, and the participants agreed, that the Consultation should divide into two groups, one of aquacultural experts and the other of agency representatives. The report of the former sub-group which considered priorities for research follows; that of the latter, on institutional needs, is to be found in section 5.2.
The technical aspects of the Consultation were considered in a separate session with the objective of specifying priority areas for longer-term research of global or regional significance. Not wanting to re-do what had already been accomplished, and seeking a framework to systematize its work, the group reviewed the matrices produced by the TAC Sub-committee on aquaculture after having considered both species by species and discipline by discipline approaches to its task of isolating priority problems.
After considerable discussion, it became apparent that it would not be easy, and perhaps not even appropriate to single out one or a few areas of research for priority funding. There is ample evidence that a wide variety of aquacultural systems are each capable of greatly expanded development. Instances were cited of rapid shifting of farmers between the production of milkfish and the production of shrimp according to level of production and market price, and of the local importance in places like India of such normally high profit products as shrimps as cheap food in places where export markets are cut off. As another example, it was noted that cultivation of tropical oyster and mussels is not now of major significance, but production can be increased by applying proven methods used elsewhere.
It was frequently remarked that research was important for improving the productivity or profitability of all systems/species under discussion. It was also evident that research into the more fundamental problems constraining development needs to be balanced with research on system development, with adaptive research, and with extension. When such restraints are reduced or removed the more critical areas of research will become much more apparent, as will the opportunities for significant system improvements. The group's evaluation of the importance of particular research efforts could only be stated as contingent upon removal of these other constraints.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is simply not enough data available on the amounts of research funding, or on economic performance of related aquacultural systems, to provide evidence to support the guesses which might be attempted on the relative importance of research gaps.
With world food needs increasing very rapidly, it was considered essential that aquacultural production be increased as rapidly as possible. Realizing that a gap of several years was inevitable between the realization of the results of research and its widespread application, the group focused on those areas where substantial impact might be achieved within the next ten to fifteen years. Given the problems discussed above of selecting specific priorities, and the short time available, the group adopted a “Delphi” approach through which each species was scored and general concensus reached on:
the extent to which lack of knowledge constrained development of its culture
the amount of money already been spent on this research, and
the potential impact on world food supply if the constraints were removed.
Similarly the group then arrived at agreed scores of the importance of different kinds of research (nutrition, genetics, etc.) for each species. The results were as follows.
The tilapias, the carps, and the mullets and milkfish were, on a global scale, considered the most important species groups, with catfishes and oysters or mussels a second category. On a global scale, shrimps and prawns were ranked much lower, because of the lower levels of impact on potential food production. However, research on simpler technologies, closer to traditional shrimp farming as practised in Asia, deserved at least some attention from the international sector at national, or even at regional, levels. The rankings of these research areas were considered at a global scale, with the feeling that within the time span considered all the above species groups could be of global interest, even though geographically limited at the present time.
In ranking the relative importance of providing seed stocks and control of reproduction, controlling disease, understanding nutrition and appropriate feeds, and improving stocks through genetics, the first two were generally considered more important, with feeds a close third. The group felt that work on genetics needed to be started now in order to solve problems already evident, but that as yet there was either not enough control over reproduction, too little understanding of the kind of characters for which selection could be made, or not enough indication of an immediate constraint on production to make such work as profitable in the near future as it has been in crops and livestock. It was, however, recognized that because of the short generation time and great variability in the many species of tilapias, genetic research on tilapias holds special promise. Knowledge obtained in the above discipline areas is clearly transferable among regions.
In looking at other research areas, the situation was somehwat different. Farming system development was high-ranked as a profitable research area for all species groups, but would require adaptive studies in each region or sub-region. Research on integration of other crops with aquaculture was considered of importance and to require regional tuning. Finally, research in post-harvest technologies was also ranked, but considered of lesser importance, in our time frame, needing tuning at a regional level, but perhaps more often at a national one.
Economic studies were considered to be appropriate elements of all other areas of research. Social research was not ranked with the other areas for a somewhat different reason, namely that such research was highly location specific and more a part of individual project development, where it is an essential component.
Looking at the regional differences, it was emphasized that significant sub-regional differences existed in each which had almost as much influence on choice of culture systems as the regional ones. As an example it was noted that very different aquafarming systems were needed in temperate Latin America than in the tropical areas.
