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

Aquaculture has an advantage of learning from the lessons of Agriculture sector and make sustainabledevelopment plans. The demand for fish is increasing due to the increasing awareness on the health benefits ofeating aquatic products including seaweeds as compared to terrestrial meat products. This increased demand ispredicted to drive people in to farming of water bodies, to meet the increasing demand. Hence, to ensuresustainability to aquaculture and safeguard environment, it has been recognized that women should beempowered with aquaculture knowledge and skills (Williams, et.al., 2001).Aquaculture has been largely carried out in most part of Asia as a subsistence farming to meet the familyrequirement of fish. In this type of farming, though aquaculture is still largely dominated by men in many countriesof the world, women have been an unrecognized contributors to the development of this system in countries likeChina (Zhiwen, 1999) and several Southeast Asian countries (Kusakabe and Kelkar, 2001). However, with theincreasing simplification of the culture techniques and integration of aquaculture in to the farming system of thefarm families, women involvement in aquaculture is gradually increasing in many countries and cultures.Importantly, though participation of women in aquaculture is increasing in most countries, control on the activityand access to the benefits emerging from the commodity produced from the sector remain still largely with mensince many of the critical activities are controlled by them.It is important to note that participation of women in aquaculture also varies greatly from country to country andeven within the country from region to region depending on the culture and traditions. In China and some of theSoutheast Asian countries with the influence of Chinese culture, participation of women in aquaculture activities issignificant. In these countries, encouragement of women participation in various farm activities to produceproducts of economic value has helped women to improve their position positively as compared to other regions.In contrast to this, in South Asia, with the conservative environment, women participation in aquaculture has beentraditionally poor and women have been largely engaged in the unvalued household and child care activities.However, in the last two decades, gender focused interventions in Bangladesh and India have created many goodexamples. In Africa, women remained neglected in the aquaculture technology introduction process and this isalso possibly one of the reasons for the poor success of aquaculture in early years in that continent. Interestingly,gender focused interventions have made significant impact in countries like Zambia and Malawi (Mbozi, 1991). InLatin America, aquaculture is a relatively new activity and, it is learnt that women have been actively involved incarrying out the activity.Key gender issues in aquacultureGlobally, the role of women and the need to consider gender issues in aquaculture development was firstrecognized by the FAO-NORAD sponsored workshop on “ Women in Aquaculture “ in 1987 (Nash, et.al., 1987). Inthis workshop, the scope to productively engage women in aquaculture and help them to be important contributorsto family economy was examined. The workshop recognized that aquaculture being not a labour intensiveindustry, the opportunity to employ more women in the sector is limited. However, the economic benefits of thecrop being higher than most other agricultural crops, it was recognized that targeting women could bringmultifarious benefits. Provision of required skills to women to carry out the activity and making available adequatecredit to carry out the activity were identified as the most important components to trigger aquaculturedevelopment through the active participation of women. This global workshop recognized the need to influencepolicies to be gender sensitive from the early stage since aquaculture is in developing stage in many countries.However, conscious efforts to address the gender issues in aquaculture sector and involve more women throughexplicit support to their participation is yet to be undertaken intensively.Asian Fisheries Society strategic interventionsAsian Fisheries Society has made consistent efforts to address gender issues in aquaculture by identifying keyresearchable areas as well as areas to influence the policies of the Governments for more than a decade(Williams, et.al., 2001, Williams ,et.al., 2002; Choo, et.al., 2006). The efforts made to measure the participation of133