New Aquaculture Technologies to Benefit Low-Income Families

The beneficiaries have made significant advances in the production of seeds, larvae and juveniles, as well as fattening different aquaculture species, through the Strategic Programme Humid Tropics (PTH) and the development of new technologies by researchers at the National Fisheries Institute (INAPESCA) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

The Director General of the SAGARPA Tropics, Pedro Ernesto del Castillo Cave, reported that with the support of INAPESCA, UNAM and Universidad Autnoma de Chapingo (UACh) a series of investigations to improve the production and utilisation of aquatic resources and to offer a range of productive alternatives to the most vulnerable sectors of the country have been conducted.

He said that there is close coordination between PTH and government bodies to provide the poor people with new productive alternatives that allow economic improvement in regions of high and very high marginalisation.

The strategy developed by the PTH has promoted aquaculture production projects such as seed production, larvae, fry and fat, as well as other infrastructure and development, especially in areas of high and very high marginalisation and for cooperatives formed by women.

Meanwhile, Del Castillo Cave, said that the PTH has shown positive results with these projects in the states of Mexico, Chiapas, Guerrero, Tamaulipas, Campeche, Yucatan, Sinaloa, Tabasco, Morelos, Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Jalisco and Michoacan.

For its part, the General Director of the UNAM Campus Sisa, Yucatan, Gabriela Gaxiola, said that after 20 years of research and technology transfer, the work of PTH, FIRCO and research bodies has been very important in diversifing products around the aquaculture sector.