The FAO Regional Centre for aquaculture training located at the Ittica Valdagri at Policoro (Matera, Italy) is a key factor of the Mediterranean Regional Aquaculture Project (MEDRAP), which regroups all the countries in the region.
The objectives of the Regional Project are to ensure a controlled development of aquaculture in the Mediterranean regions, thanks to the exchange of knowledge and a dynamic cooperation between all the states in the region.
Indeed the Mediterranean shows a good homogeneity as far as the possibilities of development of marine and coastal aquaculture are concerned, and even if there are many environmental and socio-economical diferences, we though it possible to articulate a complete training programme, capable of answering the various local needs.
Mediterranean aquaculture has been greatly developed in the last fifteen years with the improval of artificial reproduction techniques and is now concerned by the correct adoption of what was really acquired together with the recovery of a certain number of experiences of production and management techniques that in some countries have very ancient roots.
To reach the development objective, MEDRAP worked out two types of activity:
- training and information, activities at regional level, either by short specialized sessions (2 to 8 weeks) for engineers, biologists and economists, or by long sessions, for technicians and production personnel. These activities are continued and reinforced by on the job training activities which are carried out when consultants and experts visit the site.
- the activities of direct field assistance for the benefit of pilot projects, in the aim, on one hand, to adapt the suitable technologies to the local conditions and on the other hand, to review the training and popularization reference centre. These diverse projects should create within an average period, a regional network system which permits the development of true coperation between different states.
In this situation, the training of technicians from different countries plays a primary role, most of it being practical. This is also very important because there is a great lack of documents on traditional methodologies, which certainly have a great importance at productive level, whereas documents on modern technologies are more available.
The aim of this course was to train some technicians who would later work directly on production. The didactic bases of this course were elaborated according to the experiences acquired in the different Mediterranean countries within MEDRAP, in which the primary field and the intervention levels were identified , toward a training that would mark the regional development of Mediterranean aquaculture. The programmes considered these priorities and tried to answer the questions that had been asked at a regional level, with some corrections emerging from the experience on direct interventions by MEDRAP, and evaluating a certain number of potentialities in the various Mediterranen regions which participate in the project.
The FAO Mediterranean Aquaculture Training Course, carried out at the Ittica Valdagri, lasted 7 months, a period that permitted a thorough on the job training within Mediterranean Aquaculture frame and is centred on Mediterranean aquaculture. Trainees carried out many direct on the job activities, following the different phases of a productive fish farm with a wide range of diversification.
A theoretical part was associated to the practical part, in order to give some basic information necessary to the comprehension and the planning of the activities on the field, and also to offer a picture of the aquaculture in the world and in particular in the neighboroughing Mediterranean countries.
As the first long term training course for technicians who would later operate on the developemnt of productive activities has a pilot and experimental meaning, the didactic methodologies proposed will be completely verified and improved after this first new experience.
In this aim, we have planned to carry out a precise analysis on the trainers' activities, on the didactic methodologies applied, on the optimun ration between practical and theoretical activities in the different fields, on the advise and claims that emerged every day from the participants attending the course.
The lack of didactic documents on Mediterranean aquaculture is one of the other aspects that this first training course tried to face, to give the trainees some precise points of reference which could be useful in the continuation of their future activities on the field.
The Training Centre is located at the Ittica Valdagri in Policoro, an Italian Mediterranean aquaculture farm.
This choice was made according to the intention to place the trainees in a productive reality, where day by day difficulties and successes can be easily observed. The Centre is autonomous from the plant itself, as it has its own laboratories, classrooms and library; some productive structures of the farm are used for the training.
The trainees live in the FAO campus located within the farm, and are therefore always present on the productive sites.
Ittica Valdagri (fig. 1) is a fish farm covering a surface of more than 350 ha, it pumps sea water from the Ionian Sea and fresh water from the River Agri.
Its peculiar characteristics is to have in its productive structures a wide range of all the productive patterns used at present in the Mediterranean : hatchery, nursery, intensive rearing ponds, large ponds managed as in “vallicoltura”, ponds managed as parts of lagoons, channels for fry capture, ponds that can be emptied for the rearing of euryhaline fish in fresh water, structures for the rearing of shellfish, etc… All this is associated to other structures such as a large workshop for the realization of prototypes, a warehouse, cold stores, a hall for the preparation and the sale of products, laboratories, two rooms for meetings, showers, canteen, etc..
These structures are connected by more than 20 km of all-weather roads, which permit a real utilization of the productive sector for didactic purposes.
The large surface of Valdagri, including wide inner spaces, several free hectares and a beach over 4 km long, permits to welcome many people and to create the activities for the spare time, essential for those young people who stay in Valdagri for a long period of training.
All these potentialities of structures and surface made Valdagri a most suitable plant to carry out the professional training we aimed at.
Fig. 1 I T T I C A V A L D A G R I
Ittica Valdagri is an aquaculture farm in which different strategies and technologies of fish production are applied. Such activities can be summarized as follows:
1.3.1 INTENSIVE REARING
Intensive rearing of Anguilla anguilla
selection and feeding of wild eels - weaning of wild elvers - improvement of first rearing diets - preparation of artificial food - programmes of preventive and curative prophylaxis - capture and selection of eels - stocking of the product to be sent to the market
Intensive rearing of Dicentrarchus labrax
rearing of wild sea bass - first rearing of artificially reproduced sea bass - preparation of diets integrated with fresh food - selection of the product in the fattening ponds - transport of the product - fattening, feeding, selection and commercial preparation of the market size product - prophylaxis and curative treatments of the fish during the different stages of rearing
Intensive rearing of mullets
(Mugil cephalus, Chelon labrosus, Liza aurata, L.ramada) to produce one-year-old fish to stock in polyculture - first rearing - preparation of artificial food integrated with fresh food - capture and transport of the fish to fattening ponds
Intensive rearing of Sparus aurata
weaning of wild sea bream fry - preparation of diets with fresh food - preparation of integrated artificial food - capture of one-year-old fish (about 60–100 g of weight) to stock in the grow-out ponds - grow-out of the product to market size in intensive ponds, in mono and/or polyculture with mullets - association of sea breams with other species, for an ecological management of the ponds - prophylaxis and curative treatments of the fish during the different stages of rearing
Artificial reproduction of Dicentrarchus labrax
capture and stocking of broodstock - preparation of suitable pre- and post-reproduction diets - handling and transport of broodstock - artificial reproduction - collection and selection of eggs - egg transport to short/long distances - parallel culture of phyto- and zoo-plankton - weaning, prophylaxis, selection and transport of fry
1.3.2 SEMI-INTENSIVE REARING IN EMPTIABLE PONDS
Polyculture sea-bream + mullets
programmes of restocking and associations of different species, using fish captured in the wild or fattened for one year - integrated diets - management of natural pastures by integrated manuring - sample collection and control of the population dynamic in the ponds - collection, selection and commercial preparation of the product.
Polyculture mullets + carps
in euryhaline ponds, which can be filled with fresh water, association programmes among M.cephalus, Liza ramada and Cyprinus carpio -intergrated diets - management of the natural substrate - selective capture of the species reared - prophylaxis and curative treatments
1.3.3 EXTENSIVE REARING IN PARTIALLY EMPTIABLE PONDS
Aquaculture activities
restocking programmes, with or without predators - control of predators which are naturally present in the ponds - management of the inlet and outlet gates according to the different rearing stages - collection of samples and control of the population dynamics, to estimate the capture of the market size fish for the different species
Fisheries in extensive ponds
selective capture of predators with hooks - capture of eels with baskets - fishing with trammels and mono-filament sets of different size and shape - nets setting - handling and commercial preparation of the product - selective fisheries for mullets and sea bream - purse seine fishing - settling and management of fish barriers for seasonal fish capture
1.3.4 ACTIVITIES CONNECTED TO AQUACULTURE MANAGEMENT
Environment control
hydraulic control of ponds - management of water levels and quality (sea or fresh water) - continuous control of the basic physico - chemical parameters, eventual additional control in emergencies - control of bird predation, through noises, nets, etc.. - analyses in the farm's biological and chemical laboratory - control, removal and utilization of sea weeds in the ponds
Fry and juvenile capture
seasonal capture of fry in the plant's inlet and outlet channels - use of suitable fishing gear - count and selection of the product - transport and stocking - juvenile collection in the farm's channels - removal of predators from the channels - digging of suitable structures (channels, water falls) for the grouping and capture of juveniles
Construction and maintenance
small earth movements - dikes and channels maintenance - construction of gates for fish barriers and monks - construction of structures for feeding - maintenance and control of electric power lines, pumps, generators, tractors and lorries, boats, kneading machine and mincing mill - assembling of fishing nets (from raw material) and construction of fishing gear prototypes
Administration and fish culture management
relationship with suppliers and dealers - stocking of raw material in the warehouse - administration on computer - planning of the workers' and technicians'time table - programmes of activities - presence files - organization of the guard service - administrative relationships with public administrations and ministries dealing with such activities
Stocking and handling of the product for commercialisation
selection of product - washing - storage in ice-flakes and cold stores - technical and hygienic management of cold stores - preparation of the product for the different national and foreign markets
The outline of the activities carried out at the Ittica Valdagri is very useful to plan the didactic “on-the-job” training, which is an essential element to associate to the trainers' work, both practical and theoretical. All activities listed above are carried out and are being consolidated at the plant, and represent its productive nucleus. We must also add that there are several other collateral research activities, both as parts of wider programme, or as particular research which is or was carried out, such as:
- reproduction and rearing of Penaeus japonicus
- trials of artificial reproduction of mullets and sea bream
- white bream rearing
- mussel production
