Community-Based Fish Culture in Irrigation Systems and Seasonal Floodplains

Published on 4 October 2010

Research Areas

Fisheries, Policy & Institutions, Water Management

Countries

Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Mali, Vietnam

Timeline

Start Date: 1 April 2005 | End Date: 31 March 2010

Overview

The past decade has seen the growing recognition of the crisis facing the world’s water resources and thus the need for concerted efforts to use them more efficiently. It is well understood that the efficiency of water use, or water productivity, can be increased by either producing more output per unit of water used or by reducing water losses – or by the combination of both. However, strategies (developed and applied so far) for increasing output have been limited to agricultural crop cultivation and have not fully taken advantage of increased water productivity by integrating fish and other living aquatic resources into the existing water use systems. Such opportunities of integration include community-based fish culture in irrigation schemes and seasonal floodplains.

The main objective of this five year action research CPWF project was to test technical and institutional options for floodplain aquaculture, implemented on a collective basis at selected locations in five countries, namely Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Mali and Vietnam. The community-based fish culture model was originally developed in Bangladesh, building on three decades of research in community-based fisheries management and floodplain aquaculture. The project aimed to disseminate the model to other countries with extensive floodplain resources that could potentially generate important benefits for floodplain communities, addressing the following objectives:

1. To develop appropriate technical and institutional options for increasing water productivity at basin level through integration of community-based fish production into existing floodplain and irrigation systems.
2. To identify the most appropriate models of collective action for aquaculture under different socio-ecological contexts.
3. To assess the contribution of collective approaches to aquaculture for sustainable development of floodplain resources and irrigation systems.

In addition to these objectives, the project also aimed to answer two research questions:

1. What is the contribution of collective approaches to aquaculture for sustainable development of floodplain resources and irrigation systems?2. What are the most appropriate models of collective action for aquaculture under different socio-ecological contexts?The project sought to apply a range of alternative approaches to implement, monitor and evaluate the progress and results of the interventions, with the aim of disseminating the model to countries with extensive floodplain resources that could potentially generate important benefits for floodplain communities.”

Tags

Community-Based Fish Culture, CPWF, Irrigation Systems, Seasonal Floodplains