KEY MESSAGES
• Aquaculture is the fastest growing
agricultural sector in the world; it
can meet both the food security and
cash needs of poor households in
Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.
• Aquaculture can provide food and
nutrition security to the entire household,
as well as much needed micronutrients
for women and children. It can particularly
benefit diseased, weak or vulnerable
groups within the community (for
example HIV AIDS-affected households)
which need both nutritious food and
income, and where other livelihood
strategies often bring lesser returns.
• Women’s involvement in aquaculture is
more significant than often assumed.
In many developing countries formal
statistics often overlook the nature
and extent of their vital contribution.
• It is increasingly being recognized that
women are engaged in aquaculture in
myriad ways contributing significantly
to the overall well-being of households,
but the women themselves often
get very little in return due to deep-
rooted gender disparities in social,
cultural and economic spheres.
• Women are often bypassed in the
transfer of aquaculture technology and
also remain excluded from large-scale
production except as processors, with
their effort and control confined to small-
scale production. Moreover, their role in
decision-making related to aquaculture
is low at all levels from household
to community, regional to national.
• Inclusion of women in adoption of
aquaculture technology has been
accomplished successfully in some places
and has failed in others. The successes
are largely attributed to judiciously
planned interventions with a gendered
perspective.
• Social inclusion and ecological sustain-
ability are crucial to ensure that
aquaculture interventions have lasting
impacts on livelihoods.
• There is a need for policies in the
aquaculture sector to ensure that
outcomes are gender equitable, pro-poor
and environmentally sustainable.
WHY GENDER MATTERS IN
AQUACULTURE
The aquaculture sector is often considered
a male domain because of the high levels
of investment and the adoption of new
technology associated with its development.
However, women’s roles and the extent
of their participation in aquaculture value
chains, for fish, shrimp, seaweed and crab,
are extensive — much higher than in capture
fisheries. This is especially true in Southeast
Asian countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia
and Vietnam, where women carry out 42-
80 percent of all aquaculture activities (AIT,
2000; Kaing and Ouch, 2002; Williams et
al., 2005; FAO, 2007). Around the Tonle Sap
Lake in Cambodia, women’s participation
ranges from around 50 percent in fish culture
to 85 percent in marketing (ADB, 2007). The
promotion of aquaculture as a development
strategy for women has been partially based
on the perception that it is an extension of
women’s domestic tasks (Kelkar, 2001),
allowing integration with home gardening,
household chores and child care. However,
the increase in women’s workload due to
the establishment of backyard ponds needs
to be assessed relative to the social and
economic benefits. In many countries in
South Asia and Africa, there is ample scope
for increasing women’s participation in and
income from aquaculture through improved
extension services, innovations, policies
and institutional practices that are directed
towards women (Rahman, 2005).
Gender and Fisheries
The present policy brief complements that developed for fisheries.
See: http://www.worldfishcenter.org/resource_centre/IssuesBrief2108.pdf