The WorldFish Center
Top 10 achievements
The WorldFishCenter is one of 15 international research-for-development centers supported by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). We work in partnership with numerous organizations and research institutions to reduce poverty and hunger through improvements in fisheries and aquaculture.
All of our activities are designed to help meet the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). WorldFish works to support these internationally embraced goals primarily through two avenues: 1) making small-scale fisheries more productive and resilient, and 2) supporting the adoption of sustainable aquaculture that benefits the poor. Advances in these areas can pay huge dividends in reducing hunger and poverty because fish and other aquatic organisms are a major source of food and income for poor people in developing countries. Millions more can benefit from increased investment in fisheries and sustainable aquaculture to make this sector a more powerful engine for poverty reduction.
The strong impact of WorldFish research has been demonstrated through analysis showing a high rate of return on investment. On average, every US$100 invested in WorldFish yields an annual return of $134 in benefits for those to whom our work is targeted.
The Center enjoys strong recognition by investors and partners of our innovative work in making life better for poor families by better securing the benefits they obtain from fisheries and aquaculture. The following examples highlight some of our achievements.
INNOVATIVE BREEDING PRODUCES
BETTER STRAINS OF FARMED FISH
From 1988 to1997, WorldFish and a host of collaborators developed a novel selective-breeding technology to produce strains of fish with superior growth and survival traitssuited to small-scale production in developing countries. Poor families that raise such fish in farm-based ponds enjoy better nutrition through an improved diet and can sell excess fish for cash income. From the breeding program came a strain of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) known as the GIFT fish, for “genetically improved farmed tilapia.”It grows 30% to 60% fasterthan its conventional cousins, reaches market weight at up to 30% lower production cost and [H1]can deliver three harvests a year. Recent experiments indicate that the GIFT fish has achieved a total genetic gain in live weight of at least 64% over nine generations since the base population was established, without any deterioration in survival rate. In 2005 the GIFT technology was named a “breakthrough technology” benefiting humanity in an award conferred by the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California.
GIFT and GIFT-derived strains are being grown widely across Asia, which today produces about 80% of all farmed tilapia. Researchers are now using the GIFTtechnology to breed better strains of tilapia and catfish to support the growth of small and medium-size aquaculture enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa. An economic study by WorldFish has concluded that even under the most conservative estimates, genetic improvement programs can be expected to offer a strong return for investment; in the case offered as an example, the projected benefits, over a 10-year time horizon, ranged from more than US$4 million to as much as $32 million.
AQUACULTURE HELPS FARMERS
GET MORE OUT OF THEIR LAND
Marginal land and scarce resources make it tough for poor rural families to eke out a living. Yet many have found a new means of livelihood in fish-farming, thanks to a variety of innovative technologies designed by WorldFish and its partners. These methods, which are relatively simple and cheap to adopt, have been modified for use in a wide range of settings, including subsistence farms, rice paddies, hand-built ponds and even ditches. WorldFish researchers are developingGIS-based decision-support tools to help identify the most appropriate aquaculture approaches for different locations, based on prevailing conditions and available resources.
WorldFish research has demonstrated that integrating small-scale fish production into traditional agriculture systems helps farmers get more out of their land. To date, some 10,000 smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa alone have begun adopting this approach. A long-term study in Malawi that quantified the results found that, on average, adding fish ponds and engaging in enhanced nutrient recycling boosted overall productivity by 10%, offered a cushion to irrigate crops during drought and reduced nitrogen loss in soil by half. Moreover, farm income was 28% higher than on conventional farms and Malawi families that adopted the integrated farming approach consumed considerably higher levels of fresh fish, which results in better nutrition.
Techniques that combine small-scale aquaculture with rice cultivation are a similarly promising approach, especially in Asia where rice and fish are both important dietary staples. In Bangladesh,Vietnam and other countries, researchers are testing optimal strategies for growing high-yielding rice varieties along with fish and other aquatic organisms such as shrimp, freshwater prawns and mud crabs. In the Mekong Delta, net farm productivity increased from 21% to more than 190% in studies of integrated cultivation designed for conditions ranging from freshwater to brackish. In the Ganges Delta, growing rice along with GIFT tilapia and prawn followed by shrimp production brought farmers 30 to 811% higher total net return than conventional methods of rice cultivation.
WORLDFISH SPURS ACTION
TO COUNTER FALLING FISH SUPPLY
Concerned about looming fish shortages that could undermine their countries’ efforts to tackle hunger, many leaders in Asia and Africa have made sustainable fish production a priority under national development plans. “Fish for All,” a forum launched by WorldFish, has been a major impetus in raising awareness and mobilizing action. A “Fish for All” summit in Abuja, Nigeria drew heads of state from across the continent. Now, policy-making bodies such as the African Union and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa are calling for increased investment in fisheries and aquaculture under mainstream poverty-reduction strategies for the region. They see development of the sector as a way to stimulate economic growth and help feed a growing population.
Fish to 2020. a joint project of WorldFish and the International Food Policy Research Institute (another CGIAR center),has given policy makers everywhere a critical analytical tool. It provides a foundation for projecting trends in global fish supply, demand and trade. Further development over the past few years has resulted in a regionally tailored model called AsiaFish. It is now being widely used to [H2]help manage the region’s fisheries more effectively to ensure they remain productive and sustainable amid highly dynamic conditions, such as climate change and the globalization of markets.
RESEARCH AIMS TO LESSEN
ADVERSE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is bound to alter normal patterns of food production – perhaps dramatically in some areas. WorldFish research includes studies to better understand the likely fallouts from climate change, growing water scarcity and natural catastrophes that could further undermine the food and economic security of the world’s poor. The aim is to find ways of making poor fishing-dependent communities less vulnerable. With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning that African countries may be most at risk from climate change impacts because of increasingly arid conditions, sustainable aquaculture offers a promising avenue to new livelihoods and increased fish supply. WorldFish technologies that integrate aquaculture into traditional farming systems could be a boon because research indicates that this approach can make small farms more resilient and productive than regular farms during drought. Similarly, technologies now being used to grow fish in rice fields and seasonally flooded areas may become more prevalent if, as scientists predict, climate changeintensifies wet conditions in some areas.
For coastal communities, there are important lessons from post-tsunami research in Indonesia’s Aceh province by WorldFish and several partners. From that work came a framework for rehabilitation of devastated coastal areas. It has been used to guide recovery efforts after an April 2007 earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands and a cyclone that hit Bangladesh in November 2007. The guidelines stress the importance of building a more diversified range of local livelihoods to reduce an over-reliance on fishing and make coastal communities more resilient. In Aceh, for example, coastal residents are now working to create local enterprises for cage-based production of tilapia, clams, shrimp, lobsters and even octopus. Through research in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand as well as Aceh, WorldFish scientists and their colleagues are investigating possible solutions to manage excess fishing capacity -- a major policy concern today in many parts of Southeast Asia.
ECO-FRIENDLY OPTIONS SOUGHT
TO CONSERVE AQUATIC SPECIES
As wild fish populations decline precipitously around the world, poor coastal dwellers have an urgent need for new livelihoods in lieu of traditional fishing. In response, WorldFish has been working in the Pacific Islands and other sites across Southeast Asia to help villages establish viable businesses by using environmentally sustainable methods to cultivate high-value aquatic products, including giant clams, black pearls, spiny lobsters, corals and sponges. This work has shown, for example, that a single pearl farm in the Solomon Islands can generate enough revenue annually to provide as much as US$2,000 each to a hundred households. Taking up the approach, Fiji has established six pearl farms and seeded local waters with oysters.
Elsewhere in the Solomons and in several rainforest communities of Cameroon, local fishers are learning sustainable methods for producing ornamental fish and other organisms for the international aquarium market. Banded shrimp and spiny lobsters cultivated in the shallow waters off Gizo in the Solomon Islands bring the equivalent of about US$1 each, earning some families as much as $300 a month in supplemental income. Villagers in the Lower Guinean rainforest are developing a commercially oriented aquaculture business for the production and marketing of ornamental fish from local rivers; more than 200 species are prized by aquarium hobbyists. This venture is helping to ease pressure on forest resources. In other innovative work, WorldFish researchers are working to develop new hatchery methods with the aim of reviving drastically depleted sea cucumber populations. Sold in dried form as “bêche-de-mer,” sea cucumbers are so commercially valuable they have been nearly wiped out in Asia-Pacific waters; remaining stocks could have trouble breeding. Experiments to test the viability of introducing cultured juveniles in the wild show qualified support for the approach. Recent trials involving a species known as sandfish (Holothuria scabra) found that up to 20% of sandfish released at the recommended size in optimum habitat could be expected to survive to market size.
GLOBAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS
AID FISH AND CORAL REEF OVERSIGHT
Often called the “rainforest of the sea,” coral reefs harbor an astounding array of marine life. An estimated 500 million people in developing countries depend on coral reefs for food, livelihoods, coastal protection and other basic needs. The total value of goods and services they provide has been valued at US$375 billion a year. ReefBase, an online resource developed by WorldFish and a coalition of partners, holds vital information on 10,000 reef ecosystems in 40 countries. Its maps, risk-assessment indicators, reef-monitoring results and other resources are invaluable to those working to manage and protect coral reefs, which are suffering the effects of disease, pollution, global warming and other assaults. In a newly developed “Lessons Learned and Best Practices Toolkit,” researchers and resource managers can now get helpful tips about proven strategies – or mistakes to avoid – in coral reef management.The project was sponsored in part by the Global Environment Facility as part of efforts to help developing countries conserve their marine biodiversity and meet the needs of poor people living along the coastline in coral-rich areas.
FishBase, developed with WorldFish support and now administered by a consortium of organizations, is another powerful online resource. It is widely used around the world by scientists, professors, students and the public for its comprehensive data, images and interactive features. FishBase recently passed a threshold of having 30,000 fish species – basically all known species -- represented among its content; about half of them are freshwater species, half marine. FishBase gets 25 million website hits a month.[H3][BR4]Even diners can consult the site to find out whether the fish on offer is a threatened species.
FISH-FARMING ADAPTED TO SUPPORT
FAMILIES AFFECTED BY HIV/AIDS
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa aggravates hunger and poverty, especially in rural areas. Affected families, often headed by widows or orphans, face labor shortages and other constraints that limit their ability to make a living. A WorldFish research project to incorporate small-scale fish-farming methods into the particular farming circumstances of HIV/AIDS-affected families has shown highly promising results in early trials. In an initial year-long study of 1,200 families in Malawi who had practiced the approach for three years, annual household income doubled, on average. The improved economic status gave many of the families the money they needed to purchase anti-retroviral drugs. Also highly beneficial, family members’ consumed 150% more fish than previously. This is especially significant because fish is rich in high-quality protein and many important micronutrients. The World Food Program says persons with HIV/AIDS need considerably more protein and calories than healthy people, while research by the World Health Organization has shown that good nourishment can prolong the life of persons with the illness by as much as several years. The approach is targeted for expansion to 26,000 more households in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia; one day, millions of African families affected by HIV/AIDS might benefit. This project received a World Bank award for its innovative approach to development.
LOCAL HAND IN FISHERY MANAGEMENT
IMPROVES YIELDS AND CONSERVATION
Empowering poor communities to play a role in the management of local wetlands is a tough challenge because it entails broad natural resource issues, numerous stakeholders and complex institutional change. But long-term WorldFish research in several countries – most notably Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Cameroon – shows how big the payoff can be. In Bangladesh, where fish from wetlands are a major source of dietary protein, WorldFish and a dozen partner organizations helped thousands of households form committees to manage water bodies covering 16,000 hectares in the monsoon season. The local committees implemented measures that included fish sanctuaries, fishing moratoriums and restocking programs. As a result, fish production rose by 70% to 200% and the diversity of fish species in local waters increased by up to 30%. In an awards program, the CGIAR cited the approach used in this project as an “eminently replicable model for contemporary rural development.” WorldFish is helping to promote similar approaches in Cambodia, where nearly a third of the country is covered by wetlands and national policies are bringing ever larger areas of fishing grounds under local management.
TOOLS GUIDEPLANNING
OF LAND AND WATER USE
In building dams, large irrigation systems and other infrastructure projects, government planners need to know: How will these developments change local conditions, and what does it mean for people in neighboring and downstream communities? Working with national and regional partners in the Mekong Basin, WorldFish has developed tools such as the BayFish model to give scientists and policy officials a better understanding of the trade-offs involved in different water and land-use planning options. A study commissioned by the Cambodian National Mekong Committee quantified how proposed upstream hydropower and irrigation infrastructure would affect flood patterns and fish production in the Tonle Sap Lake. The heart of Cambodia’s inland fisheries, Tonle Sap provides 65% to 75% of all the animal protein in the diet of the country’s rural population. In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, similar tools are being used at the provincial level to weigh local planning decisions. And in Laos, WorldFish studies on fish migration have helped motivate the government to more carefully consider the basin-wide impacts of a controversial dam proposed for the Mekong mainstream. The research is frequently cited by a wide range of civil society and government stakeholders, and WorldFish is now partnering with the Mekong River Commission to conduct follow-up analyses to inform regional deliberations over water resources and energy development.
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IMPROVE