Michael New, OBE AwF: Small-scale fish farming and technical expertise to alleviate poverty further As founder and patron of AwF between 2003-2015, Michael New, OBE, elaborates in this one-off column upon some of the charity’s most significant achievements in some of the world’s developing countries. By the end of 2010, AwF had raised over US$ 180,000 directly from friends, family, colleagues, the aquaculture industry and the public. In addition, AwF had obtained access to nearly US$ 264,000 of other funds, which were used for tsunami relief work in Aceh, Indonesia and in USAID Farmer to Farmer Programmes in conjunction with the University of Arizona. By 2012 AwF had established poverty relief projects in Bangladesh, India, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal and Thailand and conducted minor activities in many other Asian, African and Latin American countries. Two of our most successful projects, while Nandeesha, and myself were leading AwF were in India and Nepal. The four-year Nepalese project was in two phases; in both cases AwF worked in collaboration with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). In the first phase, women’s groups were formed and shown how to dig and stock fishponds. Many showed exceptional enthusiasm; 40 fishponds were constructed within three to four months after a demonstration trip followed by a one-day training course. Although ponds constructed were quite small and total production of fish was not great, the large proportion consumed by the families concerned (80 percent) indicated that it played a significant role in family nutrition. Many new farmers joined in year two, clearly showing the scope of fish farming by women in this village. This intervention was considered very successful and served as a model for the whole mid-hills of the country. The District Agriculture Development Office took up this innovative idea and committed to support the AwF groups as well as other groups. Similarly, other organisations also showed interest to collaborate in its expansion in Lamjung and nearby other districts. The project expanded in its second phase and trained 90 families. The overall average size of the ponds was 49 m2. Total fish production per family ranged from 7.6 - 126kg with the overall average of 37kg. From this over half was sold. Among the five groups, the group in Gorkha showed excellent results. Total production of this group reached to 1.9 tons in 2010 which increased to 2.8 tons in 2011 - a productivity of 14.6 and 21.2 tons/ ha respectively; this demonstrated the possibility of gaining income (up to US$3.38/capita/day) sufficient to cross the poverty bench mark set by the World Bank. In India, our main activity was in Bishramganj, in the remote North West of the country, where AwF worked with a religious 40-acre vocational training centre. This centre had been established to train school dropouts and unemployed youths by providing them with skills that could help them to earn their
livelihood. The outreach activities of this centre were specifically assisted by AwF fund-raising in the British town of Marlow, where supporting street parties were held. This enabled the creation of a fish hatchery, which the recipients named after the street involved, in a touching tribute from the recipients of AwF aid. With the support received the Centre was able to help 75 farmers with fish ponds to improve their productivity by effective utilisation of the resources. The knowledge centric approach used by the centre, instead of the material support approach was appreciated by the farmers. Farmers were confronted with poor quality fish seed and as a result, productivity enhancement efforts often failed. Recognising this problem, the Centre expressed its desire to build a hatchery to provide quality seed to the farmers. This dream was fulfilled with the additional support received from AwF. I withdrew from the AwF Board in 2011 to allow the NGO to grow under younger leadership, but I retained the status of Founder. I am currently delighted to be providing minor advice to the recently re-formed AwF (UK) and I am hoping that all the branches of AwF will soon unite to fulfill the original purposes of this global charity, namely to assist in the alleviation of poverty through the promotion of small-scale aquaculture. To conclude, FAO remains a vital source of technical and statistical information about aquaculture and has the ability to influence governments on regulatory and quality issues. However, its ability to conduct large-scale development programmes (as it did in my days) is limited by lack of funding. My particular interest, of course, remains with small-scale aquaculture. Generally, industrial aquaculture can be taken care of by commercial investment but the poor in so many countries need help to establish fish farms. Several charitable organisations, including AwF, have demonstrated the benefit of introducing small-scale fish farming as a means of providing family food and income through local sales. However, the major global charities often lack the technical expertise in this field and need assistance. My hope is that AwF can continue and expand its work with international and local NGOs in their efforts to alleviate poverty.
Michael New entered the aquaculture industry in 1969 after extensive experience in the animal feedstuff industry. He is a Past-President of WAS and of EAS and an Honorary Life Member of both societies. Mr New is intermittently working as a consultant to the European Commission and in 1999 was appointed as an OBE in recognition of his services to aquaculture in developing countries.
8 | April 2017 - International Aquafeed