Description

Abstract: The Aquaculture Collaborative Research Support Program (ACRSP) has been actively engaged in aquaculture research, training, and outreach activities in more than 24 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas since its inception in 1982. These efforts, made successful through close collaboration between researchers and educators at US and Host Country institutions, have resulted in many new management strategies that can be put into practice by fish farmers, both in the countries directly participating in the program and in neighboring countries regionally. Most of these new strategies have significant economic implications, resulting mostly from reductions in the costs of pond inputs, more efficient management of ponds, or a combination of the two. Three examples of improved management strategies that have come out of the ACRSP effort are highlighted in this poster. These include new pond fertilization strategies developed in several of the participating host countries, innovative cost-cutting approaches to fish feeding, and the use of in-pond cages to more efficiently utilize pond space. These practices will be briefly described, with particular focus on how and to what extent they contribute to more efficient production and/or increased income for fish farmers.