Monthly Archives: July 2011

Haiti project proposal and report now available

AwF and NOVUS International have partnered to provide funding and technical support to help build an Aquaculture Learning Center (ALC) in Marigot, Haiti. This project is managed by Bill Mebane, Superintendent Aquaculture Engineering Division, at the Marine Biological Laboratory, who has been involved in training Haitians to farm fish for 9 years; see MBL’s outreach activities.

This project was originally proposed in November 2010 and was approved for funding shortly afterwards. Bill has been kind enough to provide us with an update on the progress of this project: A Brief History of the Aquaculture Learning Center.

The Aquaculture Learning Center is a model of what collaborative partnerships between various organizations can achieve and we invite other organizations to contact us if they have similar ideas that will help AwF to achieve our mission of helping the rural poor to improve the quality of their lives through sustainable and responsible aquaculture.

Four more trip reports received for farmer-to-farmer program

We have received four (4) more reports from field trips sponsored by the US-AID funded Farmer-to-Farmer Programme. You can access them on our Projects page or by clicking on the links below.

• GUYANA: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, June2011) PDF
• INDIA: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, April 2011 (PDF)
• PHILIPPINES: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, Nov-Dec 2010) PDF
• SOUTH AFRICA: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, March 2011) PDF

AwF UK financial report for 2010-2011 now available

Michael New, AwF Founder and Patron, has submitted the financial report for AwF (UK); it can be found on our Reports page or by clicking here.

Income was down from previous years due to the ongoing recession but commitments to provide further financial support for on-going projects in India and Nepal during the 2011-2012 financial year will be realized. AwF (UK) has also committed to provide funding for a new project in Kenya during the 2011-2012 financial year; see Kenya project to mitigate poverty by scaling-up fish farming & education.

Kenya project to mitigate poverty by scaling-up fish farming & providing education

AwF recently approved a Fish Farming Proposal submitted by the Holy Will Women Group located in South Rachounyo District in the Homa Bay County of Kenya.

The project’s objective is to scale-up fish farming activities to mitigate poverty among smallholders in the community who, through government initiatives, have been involved in fish farming but without prior training that would have enabled them to succeed. Also, there is a need for a reliable fish hatchery close-by to obtain fingerlings for stocking or restocking their ponds.

The project will establish a semi-intensive fish hatchery cum production centre where high quality fingerlings and table-size tilapia will be produced under the Happa system (net enclosure) and in earthen ponds, respectively. The project will also organize quarterly educational field days, in collaboration with the Kenyan Ministry of Fisheries, to train at least 800 smallholders in the basic practices of aquaculture, including site selection, water quality, pond construction, characteristics of certified seeds, stocking rate, feeding, predators, harvesting techniques, preservation, marketing, soil and water conservation and book-keeping.

If implemented as proposed, smallholders in the region will farm fish using tested and scientifically proven practices which will greatly improve nutritional standards and increase household incomes by over 200%, significantly reducing the overall poverty level. The initiative is expected to run for three years.