Myanmar Times-Feb 8
Myanmar has taken its first major step towards developing a sustainable aquaculture industry that will meet domestic dietary needs and support the country’s fishery exports business at a time when wild fish stocks are declining rapidly.
“The fisheries sector is one of the most important for our ministry, contributing to the protein needs of our people as well as our nation’s food security,” Dr Aung Thu, Union minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MoALI), said in Nay Pyi Taw last week.
He added that while Myanmar now exports fishery products to 40 foreign markets, the country’s present production capacity is insufficient for it to continue exporting at those levels. “As such, developing a local aquaculture industry with assistance from international organisations is essential,” he said.
In line with this initiative, the Department of Fisheries (DoF) under MoALI on February 1 launched the Myanmar Sustainable Aquaculture Programme (MYSAP), which kicked off with €22.5 million (K36.7 billion) in funding from the EU and German government.
MYSAP will focus on helping to develop aquaculture businesses in the inland fish-deficient Sagaing and Shan states as well as the coastal states of Ayeyarwady and Rakhine over the next 5 years. Ayeyarwady houses around 26 percent of Myanmar’s poor, while half the population of Rakhine lives in poverty despite the state having the highest potential for aquaculture.
Officials estimate the programme will directly benefit 250,000 fish farmers and also give some 25,000 rice farmers the option to improve their income by diversifying into aquaculture. It will also enable children to gain access to proteins that help prevent malnutrition.
National plan
The launch of MYSAP also served as needed impetus for drafting a National Aquaculture Development Plan (NADP) setting out long term, national objectives to foster the future development of the sector. In fact, the first NADP dialogue, during which members from the government, civil society and the private sector brainstormed over issues such as funding, policy support and education, also took place on Feb 1.
Currently, around 65pc of Myanmar’s fishery production is derived from the wild. That is depleting fast as a result of overfishing and pollution. Preliminary data from a 2013 survey conducted with support from Norway suggested that fish abundance in some Myanmar coastal areas could be as low as 10 percent of what it was 40 years ago. Meanwhile, contributions from fish farms have also stagnated since Cyclone Nargis hit the country’s coast in 2008, destroying up to 75pc of Myanmar livestock, according to the United Nations.
Nevertheless, Myanmar still enjoys a 3,000-mile coastline and several large estuarine delta systems, giving rise to 120,000 acres of land area suitable for aquaculture cultivation, according to the DoF. “If small fish farmers as well as rice farmers start converting more of this land into fish ponds and farming their own fish, they can take care of their own protein needs. To generate household income, they can sell excess fish to other locals and also export to neighbouring countries,” U Zaw Oo, executive director at the Centre for Economic and Social Development (CESD), told The Myanmar Times.
