The rural fish culture program in Panama was initiated in 1976. At that time, the political philosophy of the country supported a communal approach to nutritional problems. Grow-out ponds were constructed with government financial and technical assistance. Tilapias were selected as the principal culture species, and all-male hybrids of Tilapia nilotica x T. hornorum and T. mossambica x T. hornorum were produced in a government hatchery and transported to the grow-out ponds. Common carp (Cyprinus carpio), big head carp (Aristichys nobilis), and silver carp (Hypopthalmichthys molitrix) were also stocked to increase fish production. Initial efforts to culture fish with a commercial ration proved unsatisfactory. The high cost of the ration required that the fish be sold at a price beyond the means of the rural consumers. Since the major goal was to improve nutrition, a way to lower the cost of the cultured fish had to be found. Thus, the Panamanian government began to focus on an integrated strategy: combining fish ponds with gardens and livestock production. The use of locally produced animal manures to fertilize grow-out ponds proved successful in terms of fish harvest. Early success stimulated program expansion and soon about 200 family and community ponds of 100-10,000 square meters were in operation in a tri-province area. The need for hybrid tilapia fingerlings grew rapidly, and a shortage of seed developed. The complex technology and pond installations needed to produce the hybrid seed barred the inexperienced rural grower from producing his own seed.

Then, in 1980, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) granted the Government of Panama $1,142,000 to carry out a 4-year, pilot fish culture program. The main goals of the program were:

1. To teach organized groups of poor rural people to manage the integrated systems by themselves. Within 24 months, they would have to learn to produce their own seed fish, fatten, harvest, and either consume or market their products, and meet recurrent costs with no more than modest government extension support. The goal was self-sufficiency.
2. To focus on integrated production activities. The ponds are a nucleus around which other enterprises-livestock, production, gardening, silviculture-develop. Each operation should enhance the efficiency and value of the others. None stand alone.
3. To have multiple benefits for the rural poor. The program should improve their nutrition, provide them with some additional income, and inhibit some of them from migrating to urban areas for economic reasons.
4. To design a simple, practical technology that is compatible with micro-environmental and local community conditions. If anything, the technology is intended to upgrade micro-ecologies by improving soils and by fomenting reforestation.

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