Use of hapas to produce Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.) seed in household foodfish ponds: A participatory trial with small-scale farming households in Northwest Bangladesh
Introduction
Production and supply of fish seed-stock are essential for the promotion of aquaculture. Traditional inland aquaculture was based on the collection of seed-stock from rivers and required the sorting and acclimatising of mixed species. Fine meshed nylon net cages ‘hapas’ have been used for this purpose for Chinese carps in China (FAO, 1962, Lin, 1949) and in Bangladesh and India for Indian major carp for a long time (Bardach et al., 1972, FAO, 1962). Hapa nursing of small fry to larger, more predator-resistant fingerlings has been the focus for intensification of aquaculture in North East Thailand and Lao PDR (Edwards et al., 1990, Haitook et al., 1999, Little et al., 1991).
Several studies have indicated that tilapia contribute more than other cultured species to meeting the food security needs of resource-poor people in parts of rural Bangladesh; women and children catch small tilapia themselves in homestead water bodies using hook and line (Ahmed et al., 1997, Barman et al., 2002, Barman and Little, 2006, Haque, 2007, Haque et al., 2006) . Performance trials of the GIFT strain Nile tilapia showed significant improvements over the local strains in Bangladesh (Dey, 2000) but more widespread benefits require timely and consistent supply of seed to rural fish producers. A lack of hatchery technologies that allow a predictable output of quality fingerlings have constrained tilapia culture in several contexts (Little and Hulata, 2000). The high degree of control of broodfish that is possible using fine meshed nylon net cages or ‘hapas’ has made them popular for both breeding and nursing tilapia seed-stock at several levels of intensity (Beveridge, 2004, Guerrero and Garcia, 1983; Hughes and Behrends, 1983, Little et al., 1993, Mair and Little, 1991) and can result in high quality mixed-sex fish (Little, 2004) of the same age and size (Dan and Little, 2000, Little et al., 2003). Hapa production may be particularly appropriate in marginal rain-fed areas with prolonged dry seasons and shortages of surface water. In such areas, demand for fish seed peaks early in the wet season in synchrony with seed production from hapas suspended in perennial water ponds.
Lack of access to land and water typically constrains the resource-poor from benefiting directly from aquaculture (Lewis, 1997) and the hatchery sector tends to be dominated by entrepreneurs and wealthier farmers (Barman and Little, 2006). Recent studies suggest that fish culture is increasingly widespread in small ponds and ditches, typically those located close to the homesteads of households with limited agricultural land (Karim, 2006). Location of ponds has been identified as a critical factor in the level of sustained management of such small water bodies (Arjinkit et al., 2006) and participation in their management by women (Barman, 2001). The development of appropriate technologies and management approaches for resource-poor households requires their participation, which can in turn improve their capacity for self-experimentation (Cramb et al., 2004, Fleisher et al., 2002). This paper presents the results of an on-farm trial with farming households in NW Bangladesh over two years to assess the adoptability and performance of. hapa-based seed production.
Section snippets
Community and household selection
The study was conducted in three communities, Tarala Banara (TB), Dewnaghata (DW) in Kaharole and Dola Para (DP) in the Parbatipur Sub-district (Upazila) of Dinajpur District in NW Bangladesh. A Government centralised seed production facility for carps and a fish seed market was located in Parbatipur close to DP. The communities of TB and DW are located 50–60 km away from Parbatipur and have comparatively fewer facilities. Key informants identified every household in the three communities as
Fry production
Tilapia seed production in hapas in ponds was technically most successful at TB, intermediate at DW and largely unsuccessful at DP where flash flooding of hapas by rains caused loss of stock from hapas and led to the activity being completely discontinued after two months (Fig. 1). Most households continued production at TB and all households completed a total of nine seed harvests during the season at DW. Three households at TB discontinued their production because of flash flooding resulting
Discussion
The appropriateness of hapa-based tilapia seed production for poor rural people in NW Bangladesh was demonstrated in this study. The key technical and socio-economic factors that affected the success of hapa spawning and nursing were also identified as were broader benefits of such a decentralised seed strategy in the promotion of rural aquaculture.
Hapa-based production was a simple and adoptable method that could be integrated in ponds producing foodfish and for a range of specific farming
Acknowledgements
The study was part of Benoy Kumar Barman's dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Technical Science supported by the Department of International Development (DFID) and assisted by the Northwest Fisheries Extension Project (NFEP-2), Bangladesh and the WorldFish Center SA Office. Prof. Peter Edwards, Dr. Harvey Demaine and Dr. Govind Kelkar are acknowledged as committee members. The authors wish to thanks DFID, NFEP, CARITAS and others who directly or indirectly helped for the study. The study
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