The following chapter has been prepared by ADCP to summarize the current status of aquaculture development and external assistance, and to describe the chronology of events which led to the expert consultation in Policoro.
Aquaculture continues to grow in economic importance. The main reason for this is the quantifiable contribution aquaculture is making in many countries to fill the growing gap between supply and demand for fisheries products. This gap continues to widen because of increasing human populations and the static growth rates of capture fisheries brought about by declines in stocks and the increasing cost of obtaining fish through conventional methods. Although this gap can (and in some cases is already) being met by alternatives, such as inexpensive poultry and white meats, aquaculture particularly provides consumers with a choice of fresh products.
Aquaculture is also evident in earning foreign exchange for many countries through the export of high-value products. It also creates employment, particularly in economically depressed coastal and remote regions, and contributes to the household economy of rural farmers.
The products of aquaculture also benefit nutrition and health. Aquatic animals contain a high level of protein (17-20%) which is readily digested and immediately utilized by the human body. Compared with land animals (with some exceptions, such as shellfish), aquatic animals have a far higher percentage of edible flesh, and there is little wastage. Aquatic animals are a source of minerals, trace elements, and vitamins, and the fatty-acid content is high in polyunsaturates, particularly those which are attributed to reduce blood cholesterol.
Aquaculture, the farming of both aquatic animals and plants, accounted for some 13% by weight (or 10 587 000 metric tonnes), and considerably more by value, of total products derived from the aquatic environment in 1985. Annex I gives world aquaculture production figures for 1985 and lists countries which presently lead production. Currently, about 70% of the total world catch of fisheries is used for human consumption.
It is probable that the development of the aquaculture sector will closely parallel agriculture rather than capture fisheries. Based upon regional trends in productivity growth for the past decade, and assuming some redistribution of cultured species between the regions, the indications are that aquaculture production will increase to some 22 million tonnes by the end of the century, or approximately twice the 1985 levels. Direct extrapolation of the current global growth rate (increases of 74% from 1975 to 1985) suggests that even this could be a conservative estimate. If these indications prove to be correct, if the same database is used, by the end of the century aquaculture could account for 20-25% by weight of total world fisheries production (capture fisheries plus aquaculture), and possibly in excess of 50% by value.
The economic and nutritional importance of aquaculture to developing countries is recognized by the donor community. This is reflected by the increasing relative proportion of international financial assistance now being given to aquaculture in the total given to the fisheries sector as a whole. The economic importance is also duly recognized by the private sector, and considerable capital investment continues to be made world-wide, particularly in the tropical countries where there are important advantages of suitable climate, and cheap land and labour.
Investment in the aquaculture sector comes in two principal forms, namely external capital assistance and private sector investment. External capital assistance may be either (i) "hard" loans, provided by the World Bank and the regional development banks; (ii) "soft" or concessionary loans, provided by the multilateral and bilateral development banks, multilateral donors, and bilateral aid organizations; or (iii) "grants", provided by multilateral and bilateral donors.
At the present time there are few hard loans being made to the sector. There are small aquaculture components in a few large programme loans being made to certain countries for development, and mostly for a line of credit. The great majority of loans are concessionary, to be used for capital construction, training, credit for producers, and management costs. The World Bank has provided over US$ 100 million in soft loans to the global aquaculture sector over the last decade, and its annual volume is increasing; the Asian Development Bank provides about US$ 10-20 million of assistance to the Asia region through long-term credit to national financial institutions, or through national projects which have a credit component; and the Inter-American Development Bank and African Development Bank have played a similar but smaller role. In addition, a number of other organizations, such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), finance major construction and provide lines of credit.
Grants, however, make the most significant contribution in building the national aquaculture sectors and, in several cases, provide almost all of the funds. Such grants are provided by the multilateral and bilateral donors and have been for (i) capital aid, and (ii) technical assistance. Both are invariably provided together, but much depends on the regulations and limitations of the donor. The principal multilateral donor is the United Nations (UN) system, but increasing contributions to the sector are now being made by the European Economic Community (EEC). Most of the organizations of the UN system are restricted in the form of their assistance, either capital aid or technical assistance, and some to only project execution.
The four major bilateral donors to aquaculture (in alphabetical order) are France, Italy, Japan, and the USA. Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are also very active in technical assistance. The bilateral donors are not necessarily restricted in the form of their support.
Other avenues for providing assistance are food aid (through the World Food Programme and bilateral donors) in exchange for the construction of infrastructure necessary for aquaculture activities; and for direct technical cooperation or the execution of national activities through trust funds, as provided by such bodies as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).
Between 1982-1985, the average annual capital aid to the global aquaculture sector was of the order of US$ 40-50 million, of which over half went to Asian countries. The average annual level of technical assistance has been of the order of US$ 20-30 million, of which again over half goes to Asia, closely followed by Africa if North African and Sub-Sahelian countries are grouped.
Together with the massive investment by the private sector in aquaculture, external capital assistance has established the industry in many countries throughout the last decade. Like any other technology, aquaculture began with limited government investment in research and development and pilot-scale production but subsequent capital investment has initiated the transfer from government into the hands of the private sector.
As noted above, grants are a most significant factor in building the capacity of the developing countries to manage and operate a viable aquaculture sector. They can be used for the construction of farms and hatcheries, and also for government research facilities, for lines of credit, creating extension services, training, education, research, and national administration. Therefore, capital grants are highly adaptive to meet specific national needs which vary from country to country.
The majority of grants are made through relatively short-term national projects. A current (but incomplete) list of aid projects (ADCP, Aid Profiles 1988) indicates that there are over 160 activities of all sizes operational in aquaculture throughout some 59 countries. Of these, Asia has half, and Africa and Latin America just over 30 each; the rest are divided between the Mediterranean region, the Near East, and the Pacific countries. In some cases, these are large multi-million dollar five year projects; in others they are no more than individual fellowships for research.
There are, in addition, grants made to individual countries through regional projects. Regional projects are effective in organizing particular activities in aquaculture to make the most use of relatively scarce manpower and structural resources, and concern themselves with long- and short-term training, research, and the exchange of technical information. More recently, regional projects have focused attention on government planning and administration. At the present time there are regional projects for aquaculture in Africa (1), Asia (4), Latin America and the Caribbean (3), and the Pacific (3). New regional projects are scheduled in 1989 for the Mediterranean (2), and West Africa (1). These projects are funded both by the multilateral and bilateral donors.
Finally, there are some 21 global and interregional aquaculture projects. The majority of these are research projects funded by bilateral donors. These projects are being carried out at institutions in both developed and developing countries on topics which have far reaching consequences. One project, however, undertakes interregional coordination of regional activities. This is the Aquaculture Development and Coordination Programme (ADCP), and it is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The ADCP has been in existence for over twelve years and, with the mandate of the FAO Technical Conference on Aquaculture at Kyoto, Japan, in 1976, has been responsible for implementing the so-called Kyoto Strategy and its principal recommendations for training, multidisciplinary research, and information exchange through regional networks. These networks were subsequently identified and funded by UNDP and bilateral donors. For the first decade, the ADCP focused attention on the priority biotechnical issues. However, the Kyoto Strategy did not address the all-important characteristic of aquaculture, namely its great diversity. This, as subsequently described by the Thematic Evaluation of Aquaculture, was its principal weakness. Consequently, as the capabilities in these principal areas have been built up at the national level, the ADCP has re-oriented its focus for the last three years on the non-biotechnical issues of the sector, particularly national policy-making and planning, marketing, investment, economics, and labour utilization, particularly the role of women in the sector.
Reference to aquaculture, particularly to the small-scale fish farming communities, was made at the FAO World Conference on Fisheries Management and Development in 1984. The special needs of these communities were recognized, together with small-scale fisheries and rural fishing, and the Conference approved a Programme of Action reinforcing the three principal components identified by the Kyoto Strategy, namely training, multidisciplinary research, and the development of an information network, and recommended continuation of the work of the regional projects unchanged.
The importance of the new issues being implemented by ADCP has been reinforced by the Thematic Evaluation of Aquaculture, a global study financed by UNDP, FAO, and the Government of Norway, which was published in 1987. While the Thematic Evaluation gave credit to international assistance for development of aquaculture world-wide, it was critical of the objectives, implementation, and monitoring of aquaculture projects. It specifically noted that "few donors have a well-articulated policy for their technical assistance in aquaculture ... (which is) ... reflected in hasty and uncritical attempts to transfer technology often not suitable to the needs of the recipient country".
The Thematic Evaluation recognized that the ADCP had an important role to play in aquaculture, "particularly in identifying and in monitoring the aquaculture assistance programme at a regional level. By distributing globally the information it assembles on a regional basis (partly through the regional projects) it will provide a basis for better international coordination of technical aid to aquaculture".
At the Fisheries Development Donor Consultation in Paris in 1986 a special session on aquaculture potential and issues for development was scheduled, and information was presented by the ADCP on the findings of the Thematic Evaluation of Aquaculture. The ADCP was subsequently requested by the organizers of the Consultation to develop the work further, and to assist the donor community to identify and agree on technical assistance proposals at a global, regional, and sub-regional level, being cognizant of the recommendations of the Thematic Evaluation and other documents. With this objective in mind, the ADCP committed a significant part of its effort in 1988 to the preparation of this report on Planning for Aquaculture Development.
Planning for aquaculture, particularly in developing countries, is of the highest priority if its potential is to be realized before the competition for resources it requires, such as water and access to suitable sites, is lost.
Maximum use has to be made of investment, not only in capital but also in the efforts and time of human manpower. The resources have to be well spent, and this is not possible without identifying the greatest needs and opportunities, and developing the right strategies for cooperative responses. In brief, this is the purpose of the report. While the report itself represents an integrated set of identified needs for technical assistance to developing countries, its greater objective is to assist in guiding future investment, in its broadest sense, in the sector.
There are several intended beneficiaries of the report:
(i) All countries, but specifically developing countries:· through identification of sectoral needs in both a regional and sub-regional context,
· through information about the sector in broad contexts,
· through resulting public and private investment.(ii) Public investors, acting either independently or with international assistance, and private investors
· through identification of opportunities,
· through information about the sector.(iii) Aid donors and institutions active in aquaculture
· through identification of opportunities for providing assistance,
· through identification of opportunities for cooperation and complementarity,
· through organizational planning to meet the changing needs.
