Project Report: Contribution of Self-Recruiting Species Produced in Farmer-Managed Aquatic Systems in Rural Areas of Southeast Asia to Food Consumption

Project report: Contribution of self-recruiting species produced infarmer-managed aquatic systems in rural areas of Southeast Asia tofood consumption Ernesto J. Morales a,b, , David C. Little a , Anton Immink a , Harvey Demaine b ,Amararatne Yakupitayage b , Elsa Amilhat b,c , Kai Lorenzen c a Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK b Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management, Asian Institute of Technology, UK c Department of Environmental Science, Imperial College, London, UK Self-recruiting species (SRS) are defined as aquaticanimals that can be harvested regularly from farmer-managed systems (FMAS) without regular stocking (Little,2002). These species were identified and their importance torural households’ food consumption assessed based on fieldresearch in six locations of three countries in SoutheastAsia. Research sites in southeast Cambodia, northeastThailand and the Red River Delta in northern Viet Namwere selected, based upon a range of agro-ecologicalcriteria, notably the abundance of perennial water bodiesand designated as LOW (lower lying flood-prone areas)and DRY (generally higher, less flood-prone sites). Theresearch was carried out over three years using a collectionof different research tools to better understand the role thatSRS plays in food consumption of rural households.Participatory community appraisal was used to understandthe general context (livelihood profiles, resources, trends,and shocks) of each site. This activity also providedinformation on the most important aquatic species in thevillage using local criteria of importance set by the villagersthemselves (Morales et al., 2003). A baseline surveyfollowed to identify the location and physical and socialcharacteristics of aquatic systems, including those managedat a household level. The importance of SRS was furtherunderstood by monitoring the livelihoods and managementof aquatic systems, of 54 households over a period of 12months in each country.Consumption of food items was assessed monthly byrecall of the previous seven days (Garaway, 1999; Roos,2001), supported by a 24h observation study at each site.Food groups were classified into nine categories includingrice, aquatic animals, meat (beef and pork), poultry (andby-products), processed food, vegetables, marine products(fish and crustaceans), insects and others. The contributionof aquatic animals to diets in both agro-ecological zones inCambodia and Thailand was significantly higher thanother animal protein sources, but in Viet Nam there was nosignificant difference between aquatic animal and meatconsumption. The species and amount of aquaticanimals consumed in both agro-ecological zones in RedRiver Delta in Viet Nam were not different, althoughhouseholds in LOW areas consumed an average of2281grams per household per week (g/hh/wk) comparedto 2019g/hh/wk at DRY sites. In Cambodia consumptionof aquatic animals in LOW areas was also higher than theamount being eaten by households in DRY areas (2777and 1413g/hh/wk, respectively). In Thailand the consump-tion of aquatic animals by households in LOW areas wasless than DRY areas with an average of 6161 and 6806g/hh/wk, respectively.A total of 64 (51 fish types) aquatic animal species wereconsumed in northeast Thailand, compared to 34 (29 fishtypes) and 19 (15 fish types) species in southeast Cambodiaand Red River Delta in Viet Nam, respectively. Theimportance of FMAS as a source of aquatic animals forhousehold consumption was high in all sites, except theLOW areas in northeast Thailand, where open-access andunmanaged aquatic resources were more important. Rice-fields contributed more than 50% of the aquatic animalsharvested from FMAS in Thailand and Cambodia but notin Viet Nam where household ponds were the major sourceof aquatic animals.