Training of Trainers - Library - Network of Aquaculture Centres in ...

Enhance women participation in aquaculture to ensure sustainabilityM.C. NandeeshaCentre for Aquaculture Research and Development,St. Xavier's Bishramganj, Bishramganj –799103, Tripura, IndiaAbstractRole of women in agriculture is better understood and in some continents like Africa, women are known to beresponsible for majority of the food produced. However, the visible and invisible role played by women inaquaculture has only begun to receive attention recently with the efforts made by various organizations. Thevisible role of women and their active participation in aquaculture can be seen in some countries, while in othersthey have been deprived of their participation until recently. Even in societies where they have been participatingin aquaculture, they have been deprived of access to information, resources, markets, etc and as a result, they areserving more as mere implementers of the activity rather being the active partners in the production process.Research and development efforts made in the last two decades have helped to recognise the constraintsexperienced in various societies for the participation of women in aquaculture and have access to the resourcesgenerated.Based on the research findings, it is recognised that access to information and access to credit are the two mostpriority issues that need to be addressed to enhance active women participation in aquaculture. Access toinformation is critical and development institutions must recognise that both men and women in the family must betrained and this can be accomplished by adopting family approach to ensure that both men and women participatein trainings, knowledge sharing events, etc. Fixing physical targets for training of women and ensuring theircompliances recommended as one of measures in development interventions. Provision of credit to women andallowing them to use the resources for the purpose for which the credit drawn has been recommended as anotherimportant step to empower women. It is also suggested that development agencies ensure women not only haveaccess to credit, but help them to have control on the resources generated from the activity.Provision of knowledge and credit to women have already demonstrated on how the nutrition of the families,education of children, improved health of the people, etc., have changed to bring greater benefits to the society asa whole. It has also been recognised that when women are given knowledge and their participation is ensured,resources are used wisely and sustainability of the activity is greater. In view of the positive benefits of womenparticipation in aquaculture, development interventions must ensure both men and women in the family aretargeted for provision of knowledge and skills and flexible training and intervention approaches are used taking into consideration of women needs and necessities.IntroductionIn agriculture, women are known to be responsible for more than 50% of the food production activities (Williams,et.al., 2005) Women have played key role to preserve the biodiversity of agricultural crops in many ways.Similarly, aquaculture has also benefited from the involvement of women in the activity either directly in the field orby providing support to men who are involved in developing this new form of food production system by takingcare of other house hold activities, which are often not valued economically. Aquaculture is the fastest growingfood producing sector in the world with an average growth rate of over 9%. By 2012, more than 50% of the globalfish production is expected to come from aquaculture. More than 90 % of this aquaculture production originates inAsia and nearly 70% of this production is contributed by China alone. Interestingly, major portion of this productioncomes from small scale aquaculture wherein the involvement of women is maximum. The history of aquaculture,though has more than 2500 years, the rapid growth of aquaculture is only seen during the past three decades.132