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SUMMARY
The Auburn University International Center for Aquaculture, a unit of the
Agricultural Experiment Station's Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures,
was involved from 1971 to 1979 in two successive aquacultural development
projects, the Inland Fisheries Project and the Aquaculture Production Project,
as a contractor of the U.S. Agency for International Development to the Republic
of the Philippines.
The goal of both projects was to improve the nutrition of the Filipino people
by helping the host country government to develop the substantial potential
that existed in the country for increasing production of fish through aquaculture.
The strategy for the projects was to develop three institutional capabilities
postulated to be prerequisite to the progress of aquaculture in the Philippines:
research, manpower training, and extension.
To accomplish these objectives, the Inland Fisheries Project (1971 to 1974)
concentrated on the establishment of two research-training centers, the Freshwater
Aquaculture Center on the principal island, Luzon, and the Brackishwater Aquaculture
Center located centrally in the archipelago on Panay Island. During the project,
key staff members from each center were sent to universities abroad for graduate
training. Meanwhile, limited research activities were begun in facilities
borrowed from the government fisheries agency and private individuals, even
before the centers were completed.
The Aquaculture Production Project (1974 to 1979) focused on continued physical development of the centers; intensification and expansion of research efforts; and establishment of two training programs, one leading to an academic degree, the other practical. The project also sought to institute an effective extension program within the national Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and to link this element with the research centers.
When the projects ended in March 1979, they could be credited with several accomplishments:
(1) Two aquacultural research centers, the first in the Philippines,
had been established.
(2) Staff members of the centers had developed into competent, highly
trained researchers through graduate study plus the several years of practical
experience gained during the projects. Six had earned Ph.D. degrees and 10
had earned M.S. degrees at Auburn University under project sponsor- ship;
an additional Ph.D. degree was earned at the University of Washington.
(3) Research programs had been established and were evolving into effective
instruments for the development of new technology. In fact, the Freshwater
Aquaculture Center was already gaining prominence for its efforts to re-introduce
the nearly abandoned practice of rice-cum-fish culture.
(4) Both centers had instituted academic programs leading to degrees
in aquaculture; the Brackishwater Aquaculture Center was conducting the first,
and only, graduate program in fisheries in the Philippines. The centers had
begun also to offer short courses to extension agents and fish farmers.
(5) For the first time, an Extension Division, having formal responsibility
for design and implementation of an extension program, had been established
within the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. This new division, with
assistance of technical advisors from Auburn University, directed an intensive
program in two pilot regions to improve the effectiveness of extension activities
to aquaculture. These pilot projects are now serving as models for similar
efforts throughout the country.
Although many problems remain to be resolved, the projects were instrumental
in assisting the Philippine government to establish the institutional components
fundamental to the development of the country's aquacultural potential. It
remains the responsibility of the host country to carry forward from this
sound base. Recommendations relating to future aquacultural development in
the Philippines also are included in this renort.