A United Nations-backed initiative that will form partnerships among governments, development agencies and universities has been launched to better understand how aquaculture can help low-income countries fight hunger.
The initiative — Aquaculture for Food Security, Poverty Alleviation and Nutrition (AFSPAN) — will examine low-income food-deficit countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to develop sustainable fishing policies and support the livelihoods of millions of small-scale fish farmers. It will also design strategies for improving the impact of aquaculture on food and nutrition security and poverty alleviation.
AFSPAN will also develop new ways to quantify the contribution of aquaculture with systematic and quantitative assessments, and establish strategies for improving the impact of aquaculture on food and nutrition security and poverty alleviation.
The three-year project will be funded by the European Union for approximately EUR 1.3 million, which will be managed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in partnership with a global alliance of 20 development agencies, governments and universities.
“The project will work closely with fish farming communities and will focus on field research in many major aquaculture countries in the developing world,” said Rohana Subasinghe, a senior expert of the FAO on aquaculture and project coordinator. “It will develop tools and methodologies to help key partners to develop policies geared to improving aquaculture’s contribution to food and nutrition security.”
