LOCAL, REGIONAL, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL BENEFITS OF STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT IN AQUAFISH INNOVATION LAB RESEARCH

Lindsay Carroll*, Kat Goetting, Stephanie Ichien, and Hillary Egna
AquaFish Innovation Lab
 Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331
 Lindsay.Carroll@oregonstate.edu
 

Developing sustainable aquaculture and fisheries systems that increase productivity and enhance local capacity is essential to addressing food security in developing countries. AquaFish Innovation Lab (AquaFish) collaborates with in-country scientists and end-users to investigate and implement aquaculture technologies necessary to address site-specific challenges facing farmers and communities. Since 2006, AquaFish has worked in 33 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to broadly investigate, disseminate, and integrate sustainable aquaculture solutions across all scales to generate positive impacts at local, regional, and national levels.

AquaFish transfers the benefits of aquaculture at the local level by training small- to medium-scale farmers, mothers and heads of households, and community groups, among others. For example, in Nepal, AquaFish is addressing food security and household nutrition through extension programs at schools and farms that train students, teachers, women's groups, and farmers in sustainable aquaculture production. The expansion of aquaculture activities in these communities is a direct result of the school-to-school and farmer-to-farmer extension programs.

AquaFish research and dissemination efforts connect often disparate stakeholders across regions. The AquaFish Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP) Mali Project, for instance, used the South-South approach, a framework designed to tackle food security challenges by facilitating collaboration between Southern countries, to bring together CRSP researchers from Kenya, China, and Thailand. The project's efforts set the stage for further development of aquaculture and fisheries sectors in Mali by introducing best management practices, transferring technologies among stakeholders, and increasing economic opportunities.

Integration and coordination across local, regional and national levels adds value to activities and often increases the likelihood of change at national scales. For example, AquaFish research played a substantial role in lifting an over decade-long snakehead farming ban in Cambodia in 2016 by developing and informing options for a sustainable snakehead aquaculture program. A key tipping point in lifting the ban was the development of processed fish feeds, which AquaFish researchers in Cambodia and Vietnam helped to develop. The newly developed feed decreases reliance on small-sized fish and lessens the environmental impact of snakehead aquaculture, while the lifting of the ban augments income opportunities for farmers.