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

68 H. Kongkeo and F.B. DavyPlate 4.1 Backyard hatcheryThese backyard hatcheries were first developed as part of the major extensionthrust in a Thai Department of Fisheries (DOF) – FAO freshwater prawn projectthat started in 1974. This project was developing technical know-how, but ended upproviding free Macrobrachium rosenbergii postlarvae (PLs or seed) for stocking forthe initial grow-out operations in neighboring farms. Large quantities of PLs wereproduced at the fisheries station in Bangpakong District, Chacheongsao Province,and distributed by road and rail all over Thailand. However, more interestingly,many of the technical staff of the Bangpakong station also began to produce PLs attheir nearby homes, adapting the technology to less conventional smaller holdingcontainers locally used for storing drinking water. Before long, many of the stiltedhouses of the staff and their friends and neighbors had small production unitsunderneath their living quarters. Even nonscientific staff learned the necessarytechniques quickly and then this technology was transferred from DOF technicalstaff directly to interested farmers. Soon, the first “commercial backyard hatcheries”began to spring up in nearby areas all around Chacheongsao Province. Thisnew approach followed the principle of traditional backyard kitchen garden and fishpond operations, and developed in direct contrast to the massive species-specificconcrete fixed structure hatcheries that were set up elsewhere in the 1970s and1980s. These simple backyard hatcheries were later easily and cheaply modified toproduce marine shrimp PLs ( Penaeus monodon, P. vannamei ), grouper ( Epinephalusspp.) and seabass ( Lates calcarifer ) fingerlings, and other marine finfish species.This backyard hatchery concept was revolutionary in terms of the low initialinvestment on land, physical facility construction, and limited need for large scale