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New opportunities for aquaculture in Sri Lanka

 

In Sri Lanka, the government is aiming to double fish consumption per capita from 11 to 22 kg per year by the end of 2014 to boost dietary protein levels.

To support this, researchers from Wayamba University, the University of Calgary, and the British Columbia Aquatic Food Resources Society are working with provincial ministries in the country’s North Western and Eastern Provinces to develop production of shrimp and oysters and rearing of fish in seasonal reservoirs.

SMS messaging and a web platform have been developed to provide shrimp farmers with vital production information, such as minimizing disease risks. Ten communities have benefited from a pilot fish rearing project, harvesting an average of 4000 kg of fish from their 10 hectare reservoirs within 6 months.

Development of community mini-nurseries for fish fingerling production is now underway. A further pilot project has worked with women in two coastal communities, training them to rear oysters to a marketable size within 12 months. The oysters are sold to domestic and export markets; further work is now being done to identify and address production risks for oyster culture.

Read the story of change: New opportunities for aquaculture in Sri Lanka (PDF, 411KB).

This document is part of a Stories of Change series that shares some of the emerging gender outcomes from research supported in Asia by the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund.