WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2014 31 (CONTINUED ON PAGE 32) TABLE 7, CONTINUED. Summary of completed AwF field activities (2003-2012). Location Project title or partner Species & activity Beneficiaries Duration MALAWI WorldFish Center- Improvement in fingerling Establish core group of 1 year Malawi availability and capacity fingerling producers and train building of small-scale fish 350 fish farmers in integrated farmers aquaculture-agriculture NEPAL AwF Nepal Phase 1 Empowering women through Expansion of earlier AIT 2 years Partnering AIT aquaculture and vegetable activities to new area; training; gardening pond construction; production of fish and vegetables for home consumption; etc. 70 women & 300 direct beneficiaries AwF-Nepal Phase 2 Empowering women through Expansion of AwF-Nepal 2 years Partnering AIT aquaculture and vegetable project with similar activities gardening in the mid-hills in a different location of Nepal PAPUA ACIAR, etc. Workshop Training in small-scale poultry Participation by NEW GUINEA & aquafeed manufacturing AwF Volunteer PERU INADERU Technical advice Poverty relief in Andean area Provided by AwF Volunteer THAILAND World Vision Course in fish breeding Expansion of existing World Activity coordinated (tilapia and catfish) Vision training activities to a by an AwF Director new area of NE Thailand; World Vision Course on the production included the provision of a of low-cost fish feeds farm-made feed manual in English & Thai some cases the stocking of cultivated varieties of fish without resorting to proper aquaculture practices. Popular carp species and a few self-recruiting species were introduced to ensure sustainability. Integration of fish ponds with other agricultural activities was encouraged. In Phase 2, our work was expanded to include a further twenty poor, tribal, Muslim (Bengali) and Hindu families. Farmers were given training and follow-up support and some essential inputs such as lime, fish seed and some chemical fertilizers. This enabled them to increase fish production from 500-600 kg/ka to more than 1,200-1,400 kg/ha. Besides fish culture, farmers were also assisted through an integrated approach to improve other farming activities, particularly the production of tuber crops and the supply of good breeds of poultry, pigs and mangos. The activity of farmers from the Bengali community was much greater than those from tribal groups. Some of the beneficiaries of AwF Bishramganj projects are shown in Figure 3. Project farmers, whose numbers had by this time increased to 75, requested assistance in the production of quality fish seed. This led to Phase 3 of AwF assistance, the establishment of a hatchery to be managed with active participation of the community. Due to the personal fund-raising and keen interest of a particular street in England, the project participants named their new hatchery ‘the South Place Marlow Fish Hatchery’ (Fig. 3). The hatchery facilities became an additional resource for local youths involved in one-year integrated farming training programs run by the St. Xavier’s Vocational Training Centre. These courses provide training in integrated agricultural activities and generally include 50 boys and 50 girls drawn from rural areas. They are generally school dropouts looking for some skills to earn their livelihood. The seed produced was supplied to entrepreneurial farmers within the project operational villages, encouraging them to engage in seed nursing and marketing. Through AwF support, students were also trained in ornamental fish production. Detailed impacts of our intervention in Tripura through the three Bishramganj projects have been published (AwF 2013b). Surveys conducted by students of the Central Agricultural University College of Fisheries Tripura indicated that farmers were generally happy with the level of production achieved and other benefits received through AwF initiatives. A common hindrance was that they still could not afford any significant capital investment; how-
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