About This Project

In rural Nepal, women often have little opportunity for economic empowerment and suffer from malnutrition. To combat this, an initiative was started to teach women in rural communities how to farm fish. This aquaculture project has shown success and since grown from 9 farmers to approximately 200. The next step of the project is to assess the socioeconomic impacts and feasibility for implementing new aquaculture methods such as selective breeding or integrated multi-trophic species.

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What is the context of this research?

In rural Nepal, where approximately 85 percent of the total population reside,
economic opportunity and household food security are recurring issues. Men
commonly migrate to urban areas or abroad in search for work while women stay
behind to take care of the household. In these rural communities limited supply of
animal protein and essential vitamins have caused malnutrition. In 2000, a pilot project was started to improve rural food security and generate supplemental income through small scale aquaculture by empowering ethnic women. The project, called the Women in Aquaculture project, originally started with 9 farmers being taught and assisted with establishing carp or tilapia in community ponds. It
has since grown to approximately 200 farmers. http://www.aarm-asialink.info/...

What is the significance of this project?

As the world’s human population continues to grow exponentially, aquaculture has been deemed essential in the future of global food security. Currently, almost half of the total world population lives in rural areas. Women in these areas often do not have many options for economic empowerment. This project increases participation of women and teaches them valuable skills that will be increasingly important in the future. While rural areas are becoming common for aquaculture development, they are isolated from advanced technology. Thus, researching methods to optimize aquaculture production in its rural context is imperative. http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/re...; http://science.sciencemag.org/...;http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

What are the goals of the project?

Research will explore ways to optimize the project by assessing the needs of the aquaculture farming process and try implementing new methods or technology. Specifically, the feasibility of implementing integrated multi-trophic aquaculture and selective breeding methods. Both of these methods can increase the sustainability and production of an aquaculture system with little external resources. Additionally, through ethnographic research, the socioeconomic impacts of this initiative will be quantified. Questions will be designed to measure how the aquaculture project has affected their nutrition, income, future, confidence, education and family life. This research will manifest itself into an updated report on the project with recommendations for the future.