Brief visit to the Women in Aquaculture and Mid Hills AwF project by Peter Edwards

Brief visit to the Women in Aquaculture and Mid Hills AwF project by Peter Edwards

Peter Edwards

In November 2010 AwF Technical Advisory Group member Prof. Peter Edwards was able to pay a brief visit to our project in Nepal, which is in its second phase (see under NEPAL on our Projects page for details).

Here are his comments:

Building on a successful small-scale aquaculture project in the lowland Terai region of Nepal , AwF has funded the extension of the model to the Mid Hills region of the country.

I visited 6 family level ponds built in Phase One of the project in Dhamilikuwa Village , Lamgung District, interviewing three pond owners. They all expressed satisfaction at being introduced to the culture of carps and tilapia, consuming as well as selling table fish and tilapia fingerlings to neighbours.

I also attended the opening ceremony of a training programme for about 20 women for Phase Two of the project which was being conducted by Hare Ram Devkota as part of his M.Sc. Internship through the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science. A training manual in local language had been prepared and distributed by Mr Devkota to the participants.

Congregations from Crumlin & Glenavy (Northern Ireland) turn up trumps for AwF again

At an interdenominational service in Northern Ireland, the congregations of several churches donated their harvest collection, totalling more than £200, to Aquaculture without Frontiers. 

Through the initiative and kindness of AwF (UK) Director Scott Peddie, over £900 has been raised for AwF through multiple fund-raising activities over the past sixteen months. 

Members of the Crumlin & Glenavy Clergy Fellowship after the Interdenominational Harvest Service

Left to Right: Rev. Patsy Holdsworth, Rev. John Murdock, Fr. Brendan Smyth, Rev. Dr. Scott Peddie, Rev. John Farr & Rev. Liz Hewitt. Missing from the picture are Rev. John Rutter and Fr. Sean Dillon

AwF-Bishramganj project sees progress – report now available

Two AwF volunteers have supplied a progress report on our activities in Tripura, India within the AwF-Bishramganj project. The full report can be accessed by clicking here. It may also be accessed from our Projects page.

Seventy-five poor or marginal farmers (and their families), mostly from tribal origins, have received support in developing small-scale aquaculture and a hatchery has been built through this project. Inevitably some farmers have been more successful than others, while economic weaknesses and both droughts and floods have caused difficulties in implementation. The report from these volunteers includes two interesting case studies of the experiences of individual farmers that have benefitted from our project. The report also describes infrastructure improvements at the St. Xavier’s Vocational Training Centre, including fish breeding facilities. These improvments not only facilitiate the supply of seed fish to farmers within the programme but are helping to train local rural youths in fish culture. It is good to read of the significant impact that AwF support has had on some poor families in this remote area of India.

Harvesting fish at Bishramganj, Tripura

AwF board members meet our Patron in Phuket

It is a tradition that the AwF holds its board meetings during global aquaculture conferences where sufficient AwF Directors are present on other assignments. This enables AwF to maintain its board costs at zero. Earlier this year the board met in San Diego, USA, during the World Aquaculture Society (WAS) meeting World Aquaculture 2010.

On 23 September 2010 the AwF Board met again in Phuket, Thailand, during the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 (GCA2010) organised by the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia and the Pacific (NACA) and the Food & Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO).

Since the opening keynote speaker at GCA 2010 was our Patron, Professor M.S. Swaminathan, FRS, this gave AwF Directors from Australia, Belgium, India, the UK and the USA an excellent opportunity to discuss our activities and future plans with him. Board members also had a similar opportunity to meet with the Co-Chairs of GCA2010, Jiansan Jia (Chief, Aquaculture Service, Fisheries & Aquaculture Department, FAO, Rome) and Sena de Silva (Director General of NACA).

Joe Tomasso resigns from AwF Board of Directors

Joe Tomasso

It is with regret that we announce the recent resignation of Dr. Joe Tomasso from the AwF Board of Directors. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to Joe for his outstanding service to AwF as a member of the Board since incorporation 2004 and for his development of our Volunteer Database since 2007. We would also like to express our sincere thanks for the substantial and repeat donations to our organization by Joe and his family over the years.

AwF-UA farmer-to-farmer programme trip reports now available

More trip reports have been received and are posted on the Projects page of this website. These include:

• NEW CALEDONIA: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, June 2010) PDF
• TRINIDAD: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, August 2010) PDF
• INDONESIA: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, August 2010) PDF
• MEXICO: AwF-UA Farmer-to-Farmer Programme (Trip Report, September 2010) PDF

Toleo Foundation funded project showing great success

The Toleo Foundation funded project, Aquaculture for nutrition and supplementary income for the rural poor in Sundarban, West Bengal, India, has submitted its progress report for January 2008 to December 2009, to read it click here. 28 farmers were specially trained to produce fish seed for ponds and 72 farmers were trained in pond preparation, fish culture, marketing, and more. All of them are now involved in fish farming. Other success stories demonstrate that the local poor farmers are able to learn and practice scientific fish farming, which means that the project has the potential to provide lessons to other regions of India.

We are deeply appreciative of the support from the Toleo Foundation, whose generous donation has enabled this project to succeed.

Proud fish farmers in Sundarban

AwF project in Bangladesh enters its fourth year

We recently received a progress report from our project in Bangladesh, Poverty Alleviation through Small Scale Aquaculture (PATSSA), that you can read by clicking here, and are extremely pleased to hear that the number of participating farmers has increased by 22 in the fourth year, from 89 farmers in the third year, for a total now of 111 participants. The ponds we have helped to build are sources of income for many marginal families as well as their primary source of nutrition. Support from the project has made the farmers more confident fish culturists and helped forge strong links between fingerling producers, government officials and fish traders. This in turn will strengthen efforts to develop this sustainable approach to fish culture, which is very importnant for continued success.

To all who have supported this work, our sincere thanks!

Farmers selling their harvest of fish

Second phase of AwF project in Nepal successfully begun

A report on the initiation of this project has been received from Drs. Ram Bhujel and Madhav Shretha. This can be read in full by clicking here.

We are gratified to read the words of one committed farmer, Khrishna Raj Pandey, who said – “Fish farming is 5 times more profitable than vegetable farming and at least 15 times more profitable than rice.”  Consequently, he has decided to stock more fish in other plots as well. He believes that if farmers know this fact then almost all the people will adopt fish farming in the village and other areas of the country.

Meeting with Farmers

AwF T-shirts now on sale to support ongoing projects in Nepal

T-shirts with the AwF logo are now available, courtesy of Dr Ram C. Bhujel at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). Your first opportunity to purchase one (or as many as you like!) will be at the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 in Phuket, Thailand, in September.

Don’t fear, if you are not going to Phuket, they will be available at future conferences and fundraising events.

Or if you like, you can order and pay via PayPal using credit cards or debit card from anywhere in the world. The T-shirt costs US$30 each and has been added as an item of the Thai Store/Shop run by Ram’s wife; go to http://www.see-thailand.com/whcove.html.

The initial run of 100 T-shirts is going fast, and why not – it is for a good cause!  With the funds generated from T-shirt sales, Ram plans to expand the AwF project in Nepal to more locations on a continuous basis so that they do not need to worry about the long-term sustainability of the project. Please show your support for this initiative with a purchase today!