common people, although their role in the
technical development of certain
production techniques, in the
establishment of marketing structures,
processing facilities, etc., will remain
essential. However, combating hunger
cannot be the primary responsibility ofthe
entrepreneur, as Kinne (1986) pointed out.
This daunting task cannot be resolved by
the public sector either, although
government support for research,
extension, demonstrations and training is
indispensable in this respect. Only the
hundreds of millions of small farmers!
fishers in Asia can cope with the mass
production of cheap fish and seafood
required by the poorer segments of the
population.
Luckily, what may not be profitable
enough for the entrepreneur, may turn
out an attractive cash crop for the small
farmerlfisher. Producing cheap
planktonivoroudherbivorous fish, molluscs
or seaweeds in a commercial enterprise is
quite different from producing the same
commodities within the framework of a
well balanced, complex farming system
with hitherto underutilized family labor.
This type of smallholder aquaculture should
not be mistaken for subsistence farming.
Those familiar with Asian aquaculture
know well that only the most entrepreneurial
small farmers embark on aquaculture and
the successful ones sell a substantial part
oftheir product instead of consumingit. In
fact, these farmers must know very well
theabsorptioncapacity oftheir localmarkets
and adapt to it both with the produced
volume and the cultured species.
Increasing substantially the amount
of aquatic products low in the food chain is
getting more and more difficult by
expanding the area ofproduction, because
of the increasing population pressure and
the stiffening inter- and intra-sectoral
competition for land and water. Options
for increasing the yields of photosynthesis-
dependent systems without additional
external inputs are also limited, even in
the tropics. However, integrated systems,
based on recycling wastes of other food
production branches (which may include
intensive fish or shrimp culture) and/or
domestic and communal wastes, offer
efficient and environmentally acceptable
solutions for boosting productivity of
smallholder aquaculture. Such systems
are traditional in Chinaand other countries
of the region (e.g., India, Indonesia,
Thailand and Vietnam), but there is a
need to improve their efficiency and safety.
This cannot be achieved without the
support of the public sector for research,
development and extension of these
systems.
One of the major problems of the
expanding aquaculture production, which
causedmost ofthe negative environmental
impacts in the developing countries of the
region, is the basically unplanned and
unregulated nature of the development
process. In view of the increasing
competition for suitable sites and water
resources both ininland and coastal areas,
future development of Asian aquaculture
will depend on its inclusion in watershed
management, irrigation and coastal zone
management plans. Another constraint is
that while in Japan, Australia and New
Zealand both the establishment and the
operation of aquaculture ventures are
strictly regulated and the regulations
enforced, usually this is not the case in the
developing countries, at least not until
environmental problems emerge.
Methodologies of aquaculture planning,
guidelines for site selection and models for
rules and regulations are much more
needed in the present phase of development
in most of these countries than further
technology transfer projects of the
traditional type. These would help to keep
the negative environmental impacts of
aquaculture development at a reasonable
level.