The Aquaculture for Local Community Development Programme is an inter-regional activity executed by FAO, beginning with a preparatory phase in the period 1986–1988 funded by Sweden (SIDA). The Programme is initially focusing its activities in the SADCC member countries of Southern Africa. Its overall objective is to develop, test, and demonstrate methods for assisting rural people to improve their quality of life through the development of aquaculture in association with other community activities. This will be accomplished by initiating pilot projects which address issues identified by participating countries as crucial to the successful integration of aquaculture into rural development.
During its first meeting in November 1987, the Advisory Committee of the Programme recommended that the Programme should give attention to the following target areas in relation to aquaculture in rural development:
Information needs and design of surveys
Aquaculture and farming systems
Extension and training
Utilization of small water-bodies
Role of women and youth
Environmental impact
Each of these target areas represents one aspect in the development of an aquaculture practice. (In most of Southern Africa, “aquaculture”, as the term is used here, is equivalent to “fish-farming”.) Fish-farming, in the context of the Programme, comprises a wide range of practices, including small reservoir management, culture-based capture fisheries, extensive and intensive pond culture.
In November–December 1987, the Programme fielded a mission composed of a Programme Aquaculturist, a Consultant Economist, and a Consultant Sociologist, to survey four countries for potential pilot projects. The mission undertook in each country visited, together with Government officials and based on the discussions during the Technical Consultation on Aquaculture in Rural Development and the First Advisory Committee meeting, to:
review the status of small-scale aquaculture
study ongoing aquaculture activities
identify main problem areas and target areas for pilot activities
formulate plans for the preparation of pilot activities, including surveys and studies to be carried out
prepare institutional frameworks for the implementation of pilot activities.
The “pilot activities” referred to in the Terms of Reference which the Programme will support in participating countries can also be termed “pilot projects”. These pilot projects are meant to contribute to the body of knowledge on how to solve the problems associated with a particular target area as defined above. Farmers may participate in these pilot projects on either an individual or a communal basis.
There are two essential conditions for a pilot project in the context of the Programme:
it should be part of, or linked with, a viable fish-farming activity; and
the fish-farming activity should be clearly and principally beneficial to a rural community.
Given the large number of potential pilot projects in the participating countries, and the amount of funds the Programme will have available, it seems likely that most pilot projects will:
receive Programme support mainly in the form of specialist advice and assistance
be formulated as adjuncts to, or parts of, already planned or onging rural development activities.
The methods used and results generated by these pilot projects should be of both national and regional relevance. This means that the Programme from the outset will set out specific project management requirements to facilitate monitoring, and, most important, produce timely and useful reports. The Programme will also attempt to identify external funding to support replication of the activity on a national basis, where desirable. Thus pilot projects under the Programme will take the role of short-term, catalytic support to national efforts to develop rural communities through aquaculture, with the additional purpose of ensuring regional use of the experience gained.
Mission members assembled in Lusaka, Zambia, to attend the first Advisory Committee Meeting of the Programme, so as to be thoroughly briefed on member-country priority areas. The mission then travelled to and spent one week each in Lesotho, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. These visits took the form of introductory meetings with Government and FAO officials, discussions with Government and private participants in fish-farming development, and a brief review of documentation on fish-farming, agriculture and rural development. In each country two to three days were spent in the field visiting government fish-farms, private fish-ponds, and reservoirs in selected areas. The mission was able to discuss fish-farming development experiences with a number of fish-farmers. These discussions were mostly held through interpreters who were usually male staff of fisheries or other Government departments. A brief report was prepared by the mission prior to departure from each country and the country-specific findings were discussed with Government and FAO officials.
