Asian countries are now the world leaders in fisheries – production as well as exports. The rising demand owing to rising populations and higher fish consumption is being met by a rapid growth in production and increased global trade in fish. However, most of the current innovations in fisheries focus on relatively high-value species, resource intensive production technologies, and expensive operations, making poor fish farmers vulnerable. Moreover, small-scale fish farmers face threats from resource degradation, weak public support and investment, and inequities in access to resources, infrastructure and markets.
Productivity enhancement in the non-intensive small scale sector will result in protecting the livelihoods of small scale fishermen, while meeting growing demand for fish. This calls for local innovations, better extension service and technical support, investments in small scale fisheries and better policy support. Establishing community organizations for managing common areas is one of the promising means of delivering benefits to the poor, particularly for areas with sizable inland fisheries and large reservoir areas.
We are grateful to those who shared their perspectives with practical experiences on the theme. We are for ever thankful to the readers, the contributors and all those who have been instrumental in knowledge sharing and exchange on safe, inexpensive, simple and practical alternatives based on adaptation and innovation.
4. Editorial
6. Sustainable Aquaculture – It’s all about better management practices
Pratap Mukhopadhyay
10. Integrated Fish Farming – A tri-commodity approach
Deepa Bisht and R C Sundriyal
14. Small scale aquaculture – Boosting rural livelihoods
Biswa Ranjan Samantaray, Satyajit Kumar Bhuyan and Surendra Kumar Ghadei
17. Sustainable agro-aquaculture farming
Deepjyoti Baruah, Ravindra Posti, K Kunal, P A Ganie, D Sarma and Gyati Rinyo
25. Aquatic habitat development – A community approach
Manish Rajankar
32. Small farmers eye big fish in Jharkhand
Manu Moudgil
35. Obituary – Sri L Narayana Reddy
36. Celebrating 20 years of LEISA India – the product, the process and the movement
