The global aquaculture industry is growing by ten percent each year – quicker than any other food sector. The most impressive changes are found around the cities of developing countries, particularly south and southeast Asia.

Aquaculture is the controlled cultivation and harvest of aquatic plants and animals (such as fish, shellfish and algae) for consumption or sale. The demand for fresh fish and aquatic foods (animal and vegetable) has increased over the last few decades as cities have grown and people have moved from rural areas, particularly in developing countries. Recent studies, by the Aquaculture and Fish Genetics Research Programme, UK, the Production in Aquatic Peri-Urban Systems in Southeast Asia organisation and the UK Natural Resources Systems Programme, show that this increasing urban demand stimulates nearby aquaculture, even where fishing is a common livelihood nearby.

Aquaculture is versatile and can be successful in both rural and peri-urban areas, if water supplies are available. Good market access and infrastructure also stimulate growth. For example, increasing demand in Hanoi, Viet Nam, has driven the recent growth in carp production in Hai Duong, which has good access to the city. The relatively low labour demands of aquaculture mean it can be a profitable part of diverse income-generating activities in both rural and urbanising areas.

Poor people benefit from aquaculture in several ways:

• Increasingly denied access to wild stocks, poor people become reliant on markets to buy food. Small fish from aquaculture farms provide cheap staple food.
• Expanding aquaculture increases opportunities for employment, ranging from seed and input supply to processing and marketing.
• There is evidence in some places (such as Bangladesh) that poor people are setting up their own aquaculture farms, as the costs can be low.

As the links between urban and rural areas improve, changing work opportunities can also increase poor people’s access to land, through leasing and sharecropping arrangements. For example, the most profitable enterprises in West Bengal, India, are not owner-managed systems but leased ponds used to nurse young fish. Households on the outskirts of Hanoi, Phnom Phen (Cambodia) and Kolkata (India) can lease land and grow aquatic vegetables with confidence that the demand for these fresh products is high.

Most semi-intensive aquaculture has no environmental impacts, and can even be positive. For example, aquatic vegetables remove nutrients and improve water quality. Little or no water exchange occurs in culture ponds and they act as storage reservoirs.  This is particularly important in areas without enough water, and where poor people are disproportionately vulnerable to seasonal water availability.

Improving export opportunities and economic growth are encouraging the intensification of aquaculture. However, this may negatively affect poverty reduction and cause environmental damage (for example the rapid growth in production and subsequent decline of black tiger shrimp in south and southeast Asia).

The rapid growth of aquaculture should not necessarily be slowed, but policymakers must understand and support different options to realise the potential of this industry. In particular, governments, aid organisations and the aquaculture industry should:

• consider the role of aquaculture in peri-urban as well as rural areas
• promote a balance between export earning and  supporting domestic consumption
• consider zoning and promoting aquaculture clusters that permit nutrient recycling and pollution control.

id21 Research Highlight: 17 November 2006

Further Information:
David C. Little
Institute of Aquaculture
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1786 467923
Contact the contributor: d.c.little@stir.ac.uk

Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK

Other related links:
Production in Aquatic Peri-Urban Systems in Southeast Asia organisation

UK Natural Resources Systems Programme

Land-water interface production systems in peri-urban Kolkata project, Natural Resources Systems Programme

'Shrimp farming at the cross roads'

'The importance of self-recruiting species'