ANNEXURE III

STATE OF AQUACULTURE, 1981¹

1 Based on a paper presented by Dr. T.V.R. Pillay, Aquaculture Development and Coordination Programme, FAO, at the World Conference on Aquaculture, held in Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 1981

1. Introduction

In order to facilitate discussions on trends in aquaculture development and aid requirements in the future, this paper attempts a general overview of the developments in the sector since the FAO Technical Conference on Aquaculture in Kyoto in 1976 and outlines the present state of the industry. Aquaculture appears to have reached a real take-off stage and there is now a greater need for wider recognition of the real needs of the industry, the appropriatness of available technologies, appreciation of investment requirements and realistic time frames for developmental activities. A proper understanding of these can contribute very substantially to a sound development of aquaculture.

2. State of the industry

The fact that there has been much writing, many meetings, a proliferation of aid projects, and some poorly planned investments, should not lead us to the conclusion that a mountain of effort has gone into this sector producing nothing more than a mouse. Despite its traditional nature and socio-cultural importance, aquaculture has, till recently, been only a marginal activity in a relatively large number of countries. This continues to be the case even now, although the number of countries involved is now somewhat larger. It may not be justifiable to interpret the presence of a so-called fish culture station or an experimental or demonstration farm in a country or locality as evidence of major efforts or investment. There is no doubt that an increasing number of countries, including some of the leading fishing nations, are now devoting greater attention to aquaculture. In fact, there is now hardly any country that does not have some form of aquaculture activity.

2.1 Production

One of the ways of judging the state of the industry may be by an assessment of the output in terms of production. Although some efforts are now being made to establish a system for the collection of aquaculture statistics, we have, unfortunately, still to depend on rough estimates. It may be recalled that FAO made an estimate of world production through aquaculture in 1975 for the Kyoto Conference. An effort was made to update those estimates for this Conference, and to get more detailed data. But for a few exceptions, most countries did not have enough details and we had to be content with data only for broad categories. However, the available figures (Table I) show that the total world production through aquaculture in 1980 was over 8.7 million tons, of which 37.1 percent are finfish, 36.7 percent molluscs, 5.4 percent seaweeds and 0.8 percent crustaceans. This is over 42 percent more than 1975. The increases are mainly in production of molluscs, crustaceans and seaweeds. The data for finfish show some decrease, but this is accounted for by adjustments in fish production reported from China. A good percentage of total Chinese aquaculture production, which is still the highest, is now ascribed to coastal aquaculture which consists mainly of molluscs and seaweeds. It is still not very clear whether fish culture production from inland waters is as low as now reported. While the increased production of shrimps and prawns world-wide is undoubtedly due to the availability of export markets, the increases in the production of molluscs and seaweeds are probably due to the low input simple technologies that are readily adapted. Oyster production reported from China has also contributed substantially to the over-all increased estimates of mollusc production.

Table I
Aquaculture production by region arid commodity groups - 1980 (im metric tons)

Country	Total	Finfish	Molluscs	Crustaceans	Seaweeds
AFRICA
Central African Rep.	67	67	-	-	-
Egypt	2 597	2 597	-	-	-
Gabon	10	10	-	-	-
Ghana	120	120	-	-	-
Ivory Coast	50	50	-	-	-
Lesotho	27	27	-	-	-
Malawi	92	92	-	-	-
Morocco	140	-	140	-	-
Rwanda	19	19	-	-	-
South Africa	646	315	331	-	-
Tunisia	60	60	-	-	-
Zaire	704	704	-	-	-
TOTAL	4 532	4 061	471	-	-
ASIA AND OCEANIA
Australia	8 150	-	8 150
Bangladesh	65 000	65 000	-	-	-
China	4 012 102	813 320	1 757 960	-	1 440 822
Cyprus	30	30	-	-	-
Hong Kong	7 490	7 260	230	-	-
India	848 973	830 201	1 763	17 009	-
Indonesia	199 297	177 500	-	21 797	-
Israel	14 580	14 580	-	-	-
Japan	976 140	249 397	298 231	2 468	426 044
Korea, Rep.	481 480	943	284 749	125	195 663
Malaysia	73 741	9 357	63 412	972	-
Nepal	5 200	5 200	-	-	-
New Zealand	5 002	2	5 000	-	-
Papua New Guinea	60	60	-	-	-
Philippines	285 502	151 612	250	910	132 730
Singapore	536	497	-	39	-
Sri Lanka	17 150	17 150	-	-	-
Syria	1 180	1 180	-	-	-
Taiwan	183 673	127 974	37 507	7 017	11 175
Thailand	160 962	39 367	111 673	9 923	-
Turkey	5 573	5 573	-	-	-
TOTAL	7 351 1821	2 516 203	2 568 925	60 260	2 206 434
EUROPE
Austria	3 200	3 200	-		-
Bulgaria	22 874	22 824	-	-	50
Czechoslovakia	14 193	14 193	-	-	-
Denmark	17 111	17 111	-	-	-
Finland	3 195	3 195	-	-	-
France	198 375	25 345	173 000	30	-
Germany, D.R.	12 634	12 634	-	-	-
Germany, F.R.	24 880	13 120	11 760	-	-
Greece	1 800	1 800	-	-	-
Hungary	26 470	26 470	-	-	-
Ireland	570	570	-	-	-
Italy	78 000	28 236	49 764	-	-
Netherlands	98 489	-	98 489	-	-
Norway	7 513	7 513	-	-	-
Poland	12 100	12 100	-	-	-
Romania	41 325	41 325	-	-	-
Spain	194 460	24 460	170 000	-	-
Switzerland	1 500	1 500	-	-	-
Sweden	2 000	500	1 500	-	-
United Kingdom	5 813	5 000	813	-	-
USSR	340 000	340 000	-	-	-
Yugoslavia	29 290	29 100	190	-	-
TOTAL	1 135 792	630 196	505 516	30	50
LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN
Argentina	2 000	2 000	-	-	-
Bolivia	50	50	-	-	-
Chile	1 478	328	1 150	-	-
Colombia	400	400	-	-	-
Costa Rica	100	100	-	-	-
Cuba	6 500	3 800	2 700	-	-
Dominican Republic	906	906	-	-	-
Ecuador	4 600	-	-	4 600	-
El Salvador	39	39	-	-	-
Jamaica	44	44	-	-	-
Mexico	55 752	17 198	38 554	-	-
Panama	375	15	-	360	-
Peru	850	450	-	400	-
Venezuela	2 150	150	2 000	-	-
TOTAL	75 244	25 480	44 404	5 360	-
NORTH AMERICA
Canada	4 567	1 739	2 828	-	-
USA	135 407	55 646	74 165	5 596	-
TOTAL	139 974	57 386	76 993	5 596	-
GRAND TOTAL	8 707 363	3 233 326	3 196 308	71 245	2 206 484

Percentage of regional production as of global total:

	%
Africa	0.05
Asia	84.43
Europe	13.05
Latin America	0.86

An examination of the regional distribution of aquaculture production shows that Asia contributes over 84 percent, Europe over 13 percent, and North America over 1.6 percent. Production in Africa and Latin America continues to be comparatively small.

As is only to be expected, increases in production vary very considerably between countries. However, the main point of interest is that production has increased, and substantially at that, in the last four years in most countries.

It may be of interest to compare the average rate of increase of aquaculture output with rates of increase in capture fishery landings. Compared to the year 1975, the reported world fish catch in 1979 increased by around 7.4 percent. Compared to the year 1976, the increase was only about 2.4 percent. There has been a progressive reduction in the rate of increase. In 1979 it was marginal, around 1 percent, and in 1980 there was a fall of about 300 000 tons. The landings of food fish have remained stationary, or shown some decrease. This situation should be seen in the light of the increasing demand for fish and fishery products. It is true that the total aquaculture production is still not too large, only about 12 percent of capture fishery production, although its proportionate values, both in money and as human food, may be higher. But the main point is that the available production data fully support the claim that aquaculture is a growth industry in most countries of the world. Means of achieving further increases are clearly identified and demonstrated.

2.2 Investments

The magnitude of investments going into aquaculture could be a useful measure of the state of the industry. Unfortunately, there is at present no means of assessing or monitoring this adequately, especially in the private sector. A recent partial assessment of investments in the public sector from international financing agencies in developing countries, shows it to be about US$ 438 million for a period of 3 to 5 years.

Public sector investments in developing countries have largely been directed to food production for domestic consumption and rural development. Greater attention is focused on small-scale aquafarms integrated with crop and livestock farms, which fit in well with the rural setting. Integration of aquaculture with fishing, to increase income and standard of living of small-scale fishermen, is actively pursued in some countries.

Private investments, which generally aim at high returns, naturally concentrate on high-valued products, especially for export. While there does not appear to be a great scarcity of capital and potentially exportable species for culture, a number of problems continue to discourage investors. The more important of them appear to be the serious shortage of technicians with hands-on practical experience and the lack of properly organized pilot operations that can provide information on technical and economic viability. The seriousness of the lack of expertise and management skill will be obvious to those who have seen some of the poorly designed and operated aquaculture installations in different countries. With increasing investments, the interest of consulting firms in aquaculture has very greatly increased. However, they too face the problem of finding and retaining on a continued basis, the right type of personnel. The lack of legislative support or the indiscriminate application to aquaculture of existing legislation framed for other industries, also continues to be a problem of importance. The competition and conflicts in the use of coastal areas are on the increase, especially in industrially advanced countries.

Investments in large-scale aquaculture are very seriously affected by the absence of organized production and distribution of inputs, such as seed, feed and fertilizer. While large-scale ventures incorporate seed production as a part of their operations, local manufacture of feeds using local ingredients, has not become well established in Third World countries. The procurement of adequate quantities of fertilizers becomes a serious problem in these countries. Both in the case of feeds and fertilizers, aquaculture has to compete with other established users, who, mostly because of tradition, are believed to have the prior claim.

Economic viability is probably the main consideration in private investment and demonstration of this is, therefore, of vital importance. Like any other industry, in aquaculture too there are highly profitable, less profitable and unprofitable ventures. However, sound aquaculture using appropriate technologies, despite biological and other risks, has shown favourable returns. To quote one example, a recent comparative study made in the Philippines (by the Development Academy of the Philippines, the Philippines School of Economics and the University of the Philippines Population Institute) showed that pond fish culture (mainly of milkfish) is much more profitable than fishing. The average return on investment in fish culture was 68 percent, as compared to 11 percent for large scale commercial fishing and 21 percent for small-scale coastal fishing.

The fact that aquaculture is highly profitable in one country or situation does not necessarily mean that it will be so elsewhere. There are many factors that affect internal rates of return in aquaculture and their comparability with those of other agro-industries. They differ from country to country. The need for pilot operations, as mentioned earlier, is therefore self-evident. The time that a private investor will take to establish a profitable venture, after initial pilot studies, can serve as a major disincentive. The Kyoto Conference called for such pilot studies to be carried out in the public sector. Indeed, several pilot projects have been initiated in developing countries with multilateral assistance. But experience has shown that it takes an unduly long time to establish a sizeable pilot project in the public sector with external assistance.

The emergence of a system of insurance for aquaculture enterprises is a plus factor to the industry. For obvious reasons, the service appears to have been utilized only in western countries and Japan. Even in these countries, not all farm stocks are insured; a recent study in Norway showed that only 31 percent of the farms had any form of insurance. However, one can expect it to spread also in the developing world as the industry progresses. The slow progress of agricultural insurance in Third World countries, shows the problems and attitudes to be overcome, but one can be optimistic about the future as the industry gets well established.

2.3 Markets

Marketing of aquaculture products has not been a major problem in the past, but with increasing output it has begun to be a constraint, at least in regard to exports. Small-scale fresh water aquaculture in developing countries is often undertaken in the neighbourhood of consuming centres. Because of the ability to control the supplies according to demand, marketing still does not pose great problems in such ventures. In fact, there is a definite trend towards linking farms with specialty restaurants. However, many of the aquafoods that have shown significant increases in production in the last four years are those with export potential or primarily meant for export.

While cultured shrimps and prawns are readily absorbed by established export markets, mollusc farming is greatly constrained by import restrictions. This applies also to some of the high-valued finfish like the salmons and trouts.

3. Technologies

It is difficult to identify any major technological advances in aquaculture in the last four years after the Kyoto Conference. Much of what was reported on the state of aquaculture technology then, would appear to hold even today. Some advances have been made in certain techniques, but no new technologies appear to have become established. However, one could say that cage culture has become more widespread and as a technology more accepted. Although its success depends to a large extent on the availability of artificial feeds, this type of farming in most cases seems to reduce initial investments and begins to provide incomes to the farmers in a much shorter period It certainly has greater exposure to risks of disease and environmental hazards, but has many compensatory advantages, such as short start-up period, the possibility of starting on a small scale and expanding later if early results permit. The progress of cage culture of rainbow trout and salmons in Europe and North America, groupers and seabass in Southeast Asia, and of seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and seabream (Sparus auratus) in the Mediterranean region, serve as good examples.

The technology for the use of thermal effluents has been under investigation for some years now in Europe and North America. Though oysters, lobsters, shrimps and a number of freshwater and marine fishes have been cultured in heated water, commercial-scale operations seem to have developed only for carps and eel. Short term and annual changes in temperature of effluents and other water quality problems have been major constraints to the expansion of thermal aquaculture.

Although no spectacular technological developments appear to have taken place in the last four years, progress has been made in a number of constituent techniques. It is now possible to breed most species of fish and shrimps used for culture, although mass rearing of larvae and production of stocking material have not yet been perfected in all cases. The production of Artemia cysts, which has been a bottleneck to shrimp hatchery operation, is no more a major problem.

Efforts have been made to formulate and prepare fish feeds using locally available ingredients. Substitution of fish meal with plant proteins and increasing use of agricultural and industrial wastes is very much in evidence.

3.1 Appropriate technologies

General experience in development in recent years has focused attention on appropriateness of technologies, not only in aquaculture but also in other fields. From a global point of view, it may not be incorrect to say that no technology is universally applicable, just as there is no universal fish for culture. This underlines the importance of appropriateness of technology. Experience in shrimp culture in North America would illustrate this point. The Japanese success in shrimp culture fired the enthusiasm of many and aroused expectations of quick success and profits. As should have been foreseen, the Japanese technology could not be applied as such, and the disappointments that ensued led to much scepticism about the industry as a whole. It is now recognized that an appropriate shrimp culture technology for North America is in the process of development and nearing a stage for pilot scale production. While this is the state of shrimp culture in North America, in other parts of the world shrimp farming is expanding, particularly in Asia and South and Central America. Besides tropical climate, that enables quick growth and high production, the appropriateness of available technology appears to explain the contrasting situation. Most of them depend largely on wild seed. Extensive areas, including rice fields, are used to raise at least two crops every year, with very little, or no feeding. Hatchery-raised juveniles of selected species are gradually being used to increase production, but the industry has not to wait for the perfection of hatchery techniques to produce marketable shrimps and evaluate the profitability of enterprises. One can see the gradual progression of extensive to semi-intensive and then to intensive systems of culture, which is acceptable and appropriate to conditions in the developing world. Obviously such an evolution is not suitable for industrially advanced countries.

3.2 Technology transfer

The strategy for worldwide development of aquaculture adopted by the Kyoto Conference, considered transfer of known technologies as a major means of increased production in the near future. The Conference did also recognize the need to adapt the technologies to local conditions, thereby underlining the concept of appropriate technologies. Regional and inter-regional cooperation provides the basic mechanism for technology transfer and, within this, technical cooperation among developing countries (TCDC as known in UN circles) will have a significant role to play in transfer of appropriate technologies. The Conference Panel on Strategies for Aquaculture Development in the Third World may be dealing with this subject in greater detail. Transfer of technology within geographic, political and agroclimatic areas generally poses fewer problems. But often technology transfer between such areas may require considerable adaptation through applied research and experimentation. Differences in socio-economic and political milieu in which technologies have to be applied may necessitate major modifications for effective use.

4. State of aquaculture research

In the review of the state of aquaculture at the Kyoto Conference, a reference was made to the increasing interest in aquaculture research, and the involvement of many institutions in studies in disciplines related to aquaculture. That Conference suggested a different approach and underlined the need for systems-oriented multidisciplinary research for the development or improvement of aquafarming systems. Research agencies and managers seem to accept this concept now, but progress in its implementation is generally slow.

There have been discussions for almost a decade now on international aquaculture research, along the lines of international research on agricultural crops, supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in developing countries. The group of donors of major international agricultural research institutes has, however, found it difficult, so far, to decide on supporting aquaculture research for a variety of reasons, which include some of the inherent problems of the science itself, as well as the framework within which the consortium of donors operate.

While most of agriculture or animal husbandry is based on a smaller number of cultivated plants or domesticated animals, aquaculture employs a large number of species of fish, shellfish and plants. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to investigate all the major problems of aquaculture of all the species in a centralized institution. This is not to say that some problems of a basic nature cannot be investigated in a central research institution, but the farming systems research concerned with species and culture procedures suited for different agroclimatic conditions cannot be centralized. On the other hand, it is also impractical to set up adequately equipped and properly manned research institutes in every country The concept of a coordinated network of centres was, therefore, adopted for promoting aquaculture research in the Third World. A network of six regional centres for multidisciplinary systems-oriented research, linked to a number of national centres for field testing of research results, has been established by FAO, in cooperation with host governments and with the funding assistance of the United Nations Development Programme. These centres will concentrate on applied research directed to solving problems related to the large-scale application of a small number of selected farming systems. The Network is also establishing a computerized information system and data bank to assist aquaculture research and development.

5. Training and extension

As mentioned earlier, the most serious constraint to rapid aquaculture development at present appears to be the scarcity of trained and experienced practical aquaculturists. While this is a worldwide problem, it is more so in developing countries, where facilities for the type of broad-based multidisciplinary training have been lacking. The two types of core personnel that need institutionalized training have been identified as technicians/extension workers and senior aquaculturists. To meet the needs of developing countries for personnel trained in culture systems relevant to their development programmes, multidisciplinary training programmes for senior staff on a regional basis have been organized by FAO in cooperation with selected institutions in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Training of technicians and extension personnel is being assisted in a number of countries on a national basis.

As increases in aquaculture production in the near future are expected to be achieved through transfer of technologies, the establishment of effective extension services is of special significance. The importance of this is being increasingly realized and a number of countries have taken action to establish nuclei of effective extension services.

6. Outlook

6.1 Expansion of aquaculture

If one may indulge in some prognostication at this stage, it will be interesting to consider the outlook for aquaculture. It appears most likely that interest in aquaculture will continue and even intensify as the fishery landings, particularly of food fish, fail to keep pace with demand. This may unfortunately result in increased conflict with capture fishery interests. Experience tells us that establishment of viable aquaculture takes much longer than even aquaculturists envisaged. As already pointed out, short-term increases in production have occurred in aquaculture systems using open or existing water areas and not through establishment of, say, large pond farms. Although when established these could usually remain productive almost indefinitely, they need larger initial investments and longer time to construct.

There has been considerable discussion on large-scale versus small-scale aquaculture. The benefits of both are recognized, but there is little doubt that greater emphasis will continue to be placed on small-scale aquaculture as part of integrated rural development.

While one should support this policy, it should also be ensured that the essentials for the success of small-scale developments, such as production and distribution of inputs, credit and extension services are provided.

The increased flow of investment into aquaculture is generally a matter of satisfaction to those concerned with aquaculture development. But at the same time it causes some concern, when large-scale operations are planned without proper pilot studies and with very little hopes of mobilizing appropriately trained personnel. If these large-scale investments fail, as they may, because of these basic deficiencies, the bad name that aquaculture had acquired in some areas, due to similar reasons, may become more widespread and hinder future developments. After all, news of failures get around more quickly-success often gets little public attention.

It appears most likely that on a global basis the development of large-scale aquaculture in the immediate future will be, to a great extent, for products that are of a relatively high value or are exportable. Value is, of course, determined by a number of factors, and species that were considered of high value have become relatively inexpensive as, for example, trout in Italy, and the reverse, as for example, carps in India. Such changes in price structure can be expected to attract investment for large-scale enterprises to produce mainly for domestic markets.

6.2 Projections of production

A number of projections of future aquaculture production have been made in the past. At the Kyoto Conference there were forecasts of a doubling of production in ten years, or a five to tenfold increase in three decades, provided there is an accelerated transfer of technologies, massive financial investments, suitable legislation, intensive research, manpower training and development of institutions, and other essential infrastructures. Although a beginning has been made in meeting some of these conditions, one cannot say that very much progress has been made. However, the available data indicate an increase of over 42 percent in world production through aquaculture in a five-year period. When the fact that many production projects are getting established and new ones are being started, is taken into account, the projected doubling of production in the ten-year period, as envisaged, can be considered attainable. It is not easy to comment on the projections for the next three decades, but it can safely be assumed that if the present rate of increase can be maintained, substantial outputs can be expected.

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