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SUMMARY
The Fisheries Resource Service of El Salvador has made considerable progress
since 1971 when the Auburn USAID Project was set up. The more than tenfold,
real-term increase in the fisheries budget from 1972 to 1977 illustrates the
government's commitment and interest in the program. The Fisheries Resource
Service has excellent experiment station facilities and hatcheries with other
appurtenant infrastructure to enable a favorable long-term impact on the nation's
economy. New credit availability and new information opportunities through
extension should widen market opportunities for the fisheries sector of the
economy. The Service still has many opportunities for improvement to better
serve the populace of El Salvador.
Significant problems remain in several areas as follows:
1. The manpower of the Service is sparse, both for ongoing experimental
work and for extension.
2. The mean production of fish per hectare in both communal ponds and
private farm ponds is low in comparison witn the potential.
3. The total volume of aquacultural fish production needs to be increased
to bring about a more efficient market system in fisheries.
4. The price of high-quality fish is still too high for purchase by
the rural poor.
5. Personnel who are highly trained in the scientific aspects of fisheries
spend large proportions of their time on aaministrative duties, which leaves
little time for contributions in their own field of endeavor,
6. Aerial application of pesticides continues to interfere with the
functioning of fingerling production in the Santa Cruz Porrillo area and endangers
breeding stock of the experimental unit.
7. Fisheries law enforcement needs to be enhanced to curtail illegal
capture activities,
The following recommendations are made with respect to the Fisheries Resource
Service.
1. Training in fisheries development and management should be intensified,
especially at the lower levels of the Service. Every effort should be made
to keep aquacultural and fisheries scientists as close as possible to the
work for which they were trained. Use of personnel trained in fisheries for
teaching purposes seems to be a valid allocation of resources.
2. Extensive economic studies should be made a part of all programs
involved in fisheries development in El Salvador. This action would be in
line witn recommendations by officials of the Latin American Bureau and Technical
Assistance Bureau of AID, the Inter-American Development Bank, The Banco de
Fomento Agropecuario, the World Bank, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and
others.
3. Outside expertise probably will be required in setting up the economics
division under a proposed "directorate" organization of the fisheries
program. The plan should be designed to include micro- and macroeconomic analyses
with the intent of optimizing in the allocation of the country's socioeconomic
goals. The economics group should be so organized that it provides input to
project and policy changes before they are effected. All experimental worx
should be done under a framework whicn is amenable to the extraction of economic
data useful in decisionmaking and policy analysis. Opportunity cost of the
nation's scarce resources should be considered in all major project expenditures.
Social costs and benefits should be considted in impact analyses to the extent
of data limitations.
4. The USAID should seriously consider the possibility providing additional
assistance to the Government of El Salvador in various program areas including
extensit
and economics. Training opportunities in academic and practical fisheries
programs should also be provided for selected staff of the Fisheries Resource
Service of the Ministry of Agriculture.