TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement Introduction General ...

access to the resources and eventually enhance them. In these cases,
aquaculture becomes an entry point for building up other assets.
For fishers
Aquaculture may help to replace the livelihood lost through overfishing
or environmental destruction. In order to ensure a sustainable operation,
the need for major investment in physical capital is recognized.
Indirect benefits from aquaculture
● Reducing the cost of fish to rural consumers
● Creating wage employment on larger farms or in fish products
processing
● Cheap fish for urban consumers
Barriers to entry of aquaculture
The high investment
required in the creation
of physical capital for
aquaculture such as
pond, trench or cage,
the excavation, etc.,
might not seem
affordable. Additionally,
the costs of fish seed,
feed and/or fertilizers
and harvesting
equipment have to be
considered.
In fact, the investment
costs are rarely as high as might be assumed, especially in traditional
rice-fish societies, so that access to aquaculture is well within the existing
financial and social capital stocks of the farmer.
In order to provide human settlement in low-lying lands in flood plains,