The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) Foundation recently conducted a massive aquaculture training program in Indonesia, Thailand and China, with more than 15,000 participants.
The project, funded with the support of Walmart Foundation and IDH, was designed to drive improvement environmental sustainability and disease management at shrimp and tilapia farms in Asia and the South Pacific.
“This project has exceeded expectations because of the hard work of many committed partners to deliver improvements based on a detailed, local understanding of what farmers want,” SFP Aquaculture Director Anton Immink said. “We recognize there is still a long way to go for many of these farmers, but we encourage others to actively engage in the improvements needed.”
According to SFP, training topics included better aquaculture practices; better post-harvest practices; better business management; group formation and management; value of zonal management; a review of the Code of Good Practice in Aquaculture; ecological farming; health management; and a market outlook.
SFP local partner Sally Ananya, the director of The Food School, said she appreciated the focus on smaller-scale producers and the specific inclusion of women in the training.
“The contribution of these groups is often overlooked in projects aiming at improvements in shrimp farming,” she said.
SFP, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rebuilding depleted fish stocks and reducing the environmental and social impacts of fishing and fish farming through engaging fishery stakeholders and seafood businesses in the supply chain, said it will seek methods for the farmers they have trained to “continue the improvements they have started to become part of the international supply chain.”
