The importance of aquaculture production in developing countries is reviewed
briefly. Two sets of barriers to realizing the potential of aquaculture to alleviate
poverty and improve food security and nutrition are identified: those directly
attributable to aquaculture development policies and those arising from a lack of
policy coherence for development (PCD). The latter applies to a wide range of
sectors, the most important from an aquaculture perspective being energy,
environment, agriculture and food production, and trade and sanitary standards.
Lack of PCD is apparent at many levels: within development cooperation policies,
between aid and non-aid policies within a single donor and between donors, and
donor-partner coherence to achieve shared development objectives.
We conclude that development agencies can play a greater role in fostering the
emergence of aquaculture as a means of alleviating poverty and improving food
security and nutrition. This requires broadening the focus beyond poor producers to
include small and medium aquaculture enterprises, adopting a value chain
perspective on aquaculture development that fosters a “whole industry” approach
that delivers key human development goals, and pursuing greater internal coherence
within and between development policies. We also propose that development agencies
promote mechanisms and interventions that redress policy imbalances by raising
awareness among policy makers and through more integrated approaches to
development assistance.