Asia
RNRRS legacy
Research reports for Philippines
RNRRS legacy
Research reports for Philippines
- Getting to grips with fish losses
People can now use a new computer programme to enter local data and work out how best to prevent losses in a particular fish market chain. They can also see the effects of steps that could be taken to reduce losses. Most small fishers cannot freeze or chill the fish they catch. This means it soon spoils and fetches lower prices than fresh fish. Smoking, drying or salting preserves fish for longer but even then it's often damaged by poor processing, storage or transport. Tested in Ghana, India and Uganda, the programme has been used in Cote d'Ivoire and Tanzania and is now spreading in the Philippines. The potential impact on livelihoods is large as returns per 100 kilograms of fish can rise by US$5-6. (Ref: PHF09) - Prevention is the best cure for banana viruses
People can now use a new computer programme to enter local data and work out how best to prevent losses in a particular fish market chain. They can also see the effects of steps that could be taken to reduce losses. Most small fishers cannot freeze or chill the fish they catch. This means it soon spoils and fetches lower prices than fresh fish. Smoking, drying or salting preserves fish for longer but even then it's often damaged by poor processing, storage or transport. Tested in Ghana, India and Uganda, the programme has been used in Cote d'Ivoire and Tanzania and is now spreading in the Philippines. The potential impact on livelihoods is large as returns per 100 kilograms of fish can rise by US$5-6. (Ref: CPP75) - Beating tungro virus disease in rice
A suite of new techniques to tackle the devastating rice losses caused by tungro is now helping small-scale farmers in Indonesia, the Philippines and India. Better understanding of the leafhopper insect that spreads the virus has led to better growing practices, especially late planting. New resistant rice varieties have been produced, as well as a spatial model which helps identify the best strategies to cut the incidence of disease. A simple, reliable and relatively low-cost diagnostic kit for the virus has also been developed to help rice breeders and extension services. Farmers in Bali (Indonesia) are already growing the improved varieties on over 40,000 hectares, while farmers in East Java and Lombok (Indonesia), and Mindanao and the Visayas (Philippines) are also benefiting. Training manuals are also available. (Ref: CPP45) - Opportunities in sustainable coastal aquaculture for the very poor
Easy, low-cost methods for adding value to sea foods - fattening low-value soft-shell crabs into high-value hard-shell crabs, producing good quality dried fish, molluscs and seaweed - help the coastal poor enter local markets. The lives of many poor people in coastal areas who traditionally depended on fishing and foraging are seriously threatened. Now, small-scale producers with very modest assets and skills can produce less familiar but high-value sea foods for both local and export markets. The very poor in coastal areas in Bangladesh, and also in Vietnam and the Philippines are already seeing quick returns on their investments using these methods. Such ventures have great potential for improving livelihoods in almost all Asian coastal regions. (Ref: AFGP10) - Storage techniques boost food security over the long haul
Improved techniques for long-term storage are opening up new opportunities in developing countries. Large-scale storage is essential for grain marketing chains and food security systems, yet over time, quality deterioration often leads to nutritional and financial losses. Now maize stackburn, resulting from the build-up of heat in the interior of bag stacks, can be avoided by using passive ventilation. For milled rice in hot humid climates, quality is ensured over several years by sealing bag stacks into plastic envelopes flushed with phosphine or carbon dioxide. This long-term rice storage technique is used in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, to safeguard these nations' emergency rice reserves. (Ref: CPH24) - Working more closely with producers: a new guide
'Participatory Livestock Research - A Guide', is a new book designed to help researchers avoid the problem of new technologies not being adopted by small livestock keepers. Many technologies have not been adopted in the past for a range of reasons. Some, for example, did not take into account the limited resources of poor users, like lack of land, while others targeted problems that poor producers did not feel were urgent. The new book teaches its readers how to work more closely with end users, to ensure that the final result is something that is wanted and can be used. It details the methods and principles applied to participatory technology development, and backs this up with a range of case studies from Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. (Ref: LPP27) - Communication for dissemination
In the East Asia and Pacific region, projects designed to improve the lives of fishers have worked with communicators from the Support to Regional Aquatic Resources Management (STREAM) initiative to ensure that the results of their work reach stakeholders at various levels and get used. This work aimed to overcome barriers to dissemination like culture and language, which vary from area to area. Cycles of production, testing, and revising - all in close consultation with stakeholders - produced a range of materials. Examples include four-page, picture-rich, Better Practice Guides for producers and two-page briefs for policy makers. To ensure their widespread appeal, the materials are available in 12 languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Burmese, English, Hindi, Ilonggo, Khmer, Nepali, Oriya, Sinhala, Urdu and Vietnamese. (Ref: NRSP22) - Fish genetic networks boost production
Networks to promote high-quality breeding fish are the key to profitable aquaculture, especially for poor producers. In some countries breeding fish for aquaculture is managed so poorly that farmers produce less and less. Breeding quality fish for aquaculture can be highly successful but still has a long way to go in many developing countries. Networks to improve fish genetics - and thus production - bring together government, university and private organisations locally, nationally and internationally. They are already thriving and, in some cases, expanding in South Africa, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and Thailand. The various mixes of public, private commercial, NGO and poor producers in these networks show great promise as models for improving not only fish production but also other commodities. (Ref: AFGP09) - Enhancing development impact of process tools piloted in eastern India
The project aimed to improve the delivery of aquaculture support services to farmers and fishers by encouraging promotion and uptake of tools within government and non-government institutions, by STREAM staff and by partners in Asia-Pacific. The tools are the entry-point of encouraging and supporting Self-Help Groups, the Consensus-Building Process and Information Access Surveys. The expectation was that stakeholders in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam could learn about the process tools from eastern India and develop ways of sharing and using them in their own work. The process resulted in the production of two new genres of publications, Better-Practice Guidelines - lively, colorful 4-page media with cartoons, text and images aimed at those working closely with communities, and Policy Briefs - specialised 2-page precis's with links to other information. This led to the sharing of twelve country specific versions of each Policy Brief and Better-Practice Guideline in local languages, which assisted in generating rapid visibility in Asia-Pacific. (Ref: R8363) - Assessing the sustainability of brackish-water aquaculture systems in the Philippines
The project comprises five separate papers investigating different aspects of brackish water aquaculture in the Philippines. Two factors suggest that extensive aquaculture is sustainable in the Philippines. Firstly, it would appear to be resilient in the face of a number of perturbations, such as disease outbreaks and the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Secondly, from the results in the multi-criteria decision-making model in paper 3, we find that extensive polyculture and low-input labour-intensive systems are those preferred under sets of weights chosen by stakeholder groups in our study regions. Thus, these feed-extensive systems perform the best relative to the other farm types in the regions. However, our results also imply that technological progress in the sector does not automatically yield benefits to the poor, who are unlikely to use those technology themselves. It is really the employment generating potential of new technologies that should be considered when assessing their contributions to poverty alleviation, rather than their potential to increase yield or profitability. (Ref: R8288) - Weighing up the pros and cons of commercializing non-timber forest products
Three new tools are now available to help weigh up the pros and cons of commercializing non-timber forest products. A book looks at how harvesting and selling forest products could make a difference to the lives of the poor and what factors need to be considered. A manual, developed and tested in rural communities, maps out ways to scale-up, add value and overcome obstacles along the marketing chain. Then, a computer program helps compare options to reduce the risk of failure. National networks, researchers and development agencies already draw on these tools to help shape their programmes. Both producing and importing countries and regions use them - Mexico, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, the Nile Basin, Sahelian West Africa, the Mekong Delta and the Philippines. (Ref: FRP42)
RNRRS legacy: Asia
External resources
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Bangladesh at a glance
Source World Bank - Bangladesh: Data & Statistics (35KB) |
- Cambodia - background information
Source: World Bank - Fiji - background information
Source: World Bank
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India at a glance
Source World Bank - India: Data & Statistics (35KB) |
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Nepal at a glance
Source World Bank - Nepal: Data & Statistics (35KB) |
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Sri Lanka at a glance
Source World Bank - Sri Lanka: Data & Statistics (35KB) |
Archive
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Bangladesh takes up the challenge Innovation Challenge Fund brochure 1 2008 (PDF 480KB) |
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Nepal takes up the challenge Innovation Challenge Fund brochure 2 2008 (PDF 410KB) |
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India takes up the challenge Innovation Challenge Fund brochure 3 2008 (PDF 320KB) |
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Enabling the poor to benefit from research RIU introductory flyer Asian version - in English 2008 (PDF 270KB) |
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Bangladesh RIU country assessment, executive summary Authors: Jill Lenné, Craig Meisner, Harriet Matsaert 2007 (PDF 60KB) |
