Success Stories In Asian Aquaculture - Library - Network of ...

Chapter 8The Genetic Improvement of Farmed TilapiasProject: Impact and Lessons LearnedBelen O. Acosta and Modadugu V. GuptaAbstract In response to challenges that the developing world confront on foodsecurity and malnutrition, the last two decades have witnessed increased efforts ingenetic improvement to enhance production traits of commercially important aquaticspecies. From the 1980s to the present, several institutions in developing countrieshave been engaged in such R&D activity and it is recognized that the collaborativeprogram on Genetic Improvement of Farmed Tilapias (GIFT) has spurred the developmentof several tilapia and carp breeding programs that now exist in numerousdeveloping countries. The GIFT is a collaborative R&D program conducted by theWorldFish Center (formerly, International Center for Living Aquatic ResourcesManagement, ICLARM) and its partners from the Philippines and Norway aimedto develop methodologies for the genetic improvement of tropical finfish of aquacultureimportance. The GIFT project has demonstrated that selective breeding isa feasible, cost effective, and sustainable approach to the genetic improvement oftropical finfish, and also confirmed the importance of a multidisciplinary approachthat enabled the assessment of economic viability, social acceptability, and environmentalcompatibility, thus, creating confidence among planners and administrators,all of which facilitated the transfer of research findings to farming systems in a hostof countries. The program and its successors, such as the International Network onGenetics in Aquaculture (INGA), demonstrated that networking and partnershipbuilding among national institutions in developing countries, advanced scientificinstitutions, and regional and international organizations can play a major role inaccelerating research and the success of R&D.B.O. Acosta () and M.V. GuptaAquaculture Department, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Manila Office,102 Philippine Social Science Center Building, Commonwealth Avenue , Quezon CityDiliman , 1101 , Philippinese-mail: bacosta@seafdec.org.phS.S. De Silva and F.B. Davy (eds.), Success Stories in Asian Aquaculture,© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010149