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The Relevance and Applicability of FSRE Methods to Fisheries
Research and Development
by:
Kevin Veach 4-09-95
ABSTRACT
Fisheries development projects have often been planned and carried out in a centralized,
top-down fashion like many kinds of development projects. Technical interventions have been
planned with little knowledge of the local conditions and especially without awareness of local
fishers' needs and the socio-cultural factors that affect the fisheries. This approach has often
resulted in the promotion of industrialization of fisheries leading to subsequent overfishing and
conflicts over remaining resources between small-scale and industrial fishers.
The use of Farming Systems Research and Extension (FSRE) methods offers the
possibility of a better understanding of the social context of a fishery, the fishers' needs and greater
opportunity for incorporating the fishers' knowledge into site-specific solutions, but will have to
overcome several challenges of working with fisheries due to the greater social complexity of
fisheries and the nature of the resource base.
I. INTRODUCTION
FSRE is a multidisciplinary approach to understanding and solving the problems of
small-scale, resource-poor farmers. This approach grew out of the realization that Green
Revolution techniques with their emphasis on hybrid varieties, high input requirements,
centralized research and idealized research station conditions were overlooking the needs
of resource-poor farmers in favor of the more advantaged farmers. In contrast, FSRE has
focused on the needs of small-scale farmers by evolving research and extension methods
that respond to the social and environmental diversity of small farms. The typical isolation
of the researcher from the farmer and from the extension worker is overcome by use of
the "sondeo" process (Hildebrand, 1981), in which multidisciplinary teams of social
science and agriculture specialists conduct on-farm visits with the farmers to understand
their farming systems, resources, constraints, needs and priorities, and to devise on-farm
trials with them that can lead to site-specific solutions. One integrating aspect of this
ABSTRACT
Fisheries development projects have often been planned and carried out in a centralized,
top-down fashion like many kinds of development projects. Technical interventions have been
planned with little knowledge of the local conditions and especially without awareness of local
fishers' needs and the socio-cultural factors that affect the fisheries. This approach has often
resulted in the promotion of industrialization of fisheries leading to subsequent overfishing and
conflicts over remaining resources between small-scale and industrial fishers.
The use of Farming Systems Research and Extension (FSRE) methods offers the
possibility of a better understanding of the social context of a fishery, the fishers' needs and greater
opportunity for incorporating the fishers' knowledge into site-specific solutions, but will have to
overcome several challenges of working with fisheries due to the greater social complexity of
fisheries and the nature of the resource base.
I. INTRODUCTION
FSRE is a multidisciplinary approach to understanding and solving the problems of
small-scale, resource-poor farmers. This approach grew out of the realization that Green
Revolution techniques with their emphasis on hybrid varieties, high input requirements,
centralized research and idealized research station conditions were overlooking the needs
of resource-poor farmers in favor of the more advantaged farmers. In contrast, FSRE has
focused on the needs of small-scale farmers by evolving research and extension methods
that respond to the social and environmental diversity of small farms. The typical isolation
of the researcher from the farmer and from the extension worker is overcome by use of
the "sondeo" process (Hildebrand, 1981), in which multidisciplinary teams of social
science and agriculture specialists conduct on-farm visits with the farmers to understand
their farming systems, resources, constraints, needs and priorities, and to devise on-farm
trials with them that can lead to site-specific solutions. One integrating aspect of this
process is that it considers the farm first and foremost as a household livelihood system
composed of many interdependent subsystems, in contrast to considering the farm as
simply a profit-making business (Poats, et al., 1986).
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevance and applicability of an FSRE
approach for research and development for small-scale or artisan level fisheries. Much like
the Green Revolution, fisheries development policy has stressed industrialization of
fisheries and centralized research focused on technology or fish and has tended to benefit
only the wealthier fishers. While the approach of FSRE has much to offer to improve the
well-being of fishers, it will face several major challenges in adapting itself to the unique
conditions of fisheries.
II. THE NATURE OF SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES
In fisheries, as in farming, defining "small scale" is a difficult task and the same
scale of fishing operation might be classified differently in different countries. Several of
the criteria developed by Charles (1991) point out the similarity to the nature of small
farms. According to Charles (1991): 1) the fishery is an integral part of the community
where the fishers live; 2) the fishers are highly dependent on the fishery and have few other
opportunities; 3) vessels are relatively small and individually owned; 4) the fishing
operation relies more on labor than on capital; 5) net incomes are generally low; and 6) the
techniques may be viewed as traditional or technologically backward by some. Like small-
scale farming, these small-scale fisheries are enormously important, employing nearly 90%
of the world's fishers and providing about half of the edible catch (Berkes, 1986).
The social and subsistence aspects of the fishery are especially important. Fishing is
often done by kin groups and is often part-time with fishers relying on supplemental
income. The majority of fishers do not own vessels and many do not own gear but work
for wages or a share of the catch (Smith, 1979). Part or all of the catch may go towards
family consumption. Small-scale fishers generally have low incomes compared to the
average in their countries (Smith, 1979) and are often marginalized both geographically
and socially (Cordell, 1986; Smith, 1979). This marginality grants fishers a large measure
of independence and can serve as a screen to allow them to avoid government regulation
(Cordell, 1986). In many places, informal systems of local sea tenure determine access to
the resource, but conflicts among local groups and between local groups and outsiders are
common. Thus, understanding local tenure and social systems is fundamental to
understanding small-scale fisheries.
These social aspects of small-scale fisheries are significantly determined by the
nature of the fisheries resource itself. Small-fishers usually exploit the shallower near-
shore areas that have higher biomass and that they can access with their gear and small
boats (Lampe, 1991). The extreme variability of the catch from area to area and from
season to season demands great flexibility from the fishers changing fishing gear or
locations or even shifting to land-based activities when the catch per unit effort is too low
(Lampe, 1991). In addition, some fishers will migrate to exploit migratory species. This
diversity of environments and strategies exists both between and within countries (Aguero,
1991).
III. FAILURES OF TRADITIONAL APPROACHES TO FISHERIES RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT
While fisheries management in developing countries has often included the
objective of improving the well-being of small-scale fishers, this objective has frequently
lost out to objectives such as maximizing national fisheries earnings or modernizing the
fishing fleet. The actual implementation of traditional fisheries research and development
has been of limited benefit to most small-scale fishers. In this sense, the history of fisheries
research and development clearly mirrors several of the problems of traditional agricultural
research to which FSRE was a response.
As with past agricultural research and development, fisheries development has
been almost exclusively directed in a centralized fashion by national institutes with little
regional flexibility. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the research has focused on the
production technology or the fish, but, until recently, there has been very little
investigation of the social aspects of fisheries in developing countries (Aguero, 1991;
Lampe, 1991; Smith, 1979). This is especially true for the issues of fishers' culture and sea
tenure or sea rights (Cordell, 1986; Lampe, 1991). Despite the recent increase in studies
of the social aspects of fisheries, the information about small-scale fisheries in South
America, for example, is still "fragmentary" or "non-existing" because of the priority on
researching industrial fisheries (Aguero, 1991). Where the social issues and needs of
fishers have been acknowledged, the general prescription has been to form cooperatives,
even though they were shown early on to be highly failure-prone, often because they
conflicted with the existing social structures (Pollnac, 1981; Smith, 1979).
In general, the goal has been to modernize and industrialize the fishing industry.
This focus carried several consequences. Only the wealthier boat owners were able to
receive subsidized loans and thus modernize their equipment. Modem equipment is more
capital intensive, leading to increased unemployment among fishers. When cooperatives
were formed to give the poorer fishers access to credit and modem equipment, frequent
coop failure often left fishers poorer than before (Pollnac, 1981; Smith, 1979).
Industrialization of the fishing fleets thus meant less employment for fishers and increasing
stratification between boat owners and fishers (Cordell, 1986; Smith, 1979).
In addition, a frequent overcapitalization of the industrial off-shore fleet led to
severe overfishing of the pelagic species, forcing the industrial boats to fish in the inshore
waters in conflict with the small-scale fishers and often rapidly depleting the fish stocks
(Cordell, 1986; Smith, 1979). Because local sea-tenure systems were barely recognized,
much less legally protected, increasing conflicts developed in many countries between
industrial and small-scale fishers (Berkes and Kislalioglu, 1991; Cordell, 1986; Ghai and
Vivian, 1992; Johannes, 1978; Quinn and Kolis, 1991).
Finally, it has been this conflict with the more powerful, industrialized fleet,
controlled by outsiders, which has led to the degeneration of the local sea-tenure systems
in many places (Cordell, 1986; Johannes, 1978). Such traditional tenure systems function
well with local residents who are subject to community norms but break down in the face
of outsiders who can simply move on after depleting the resource (Cordell, 1986).
IV. NEED FOR AN FSRE-STYLE APPROACH TO FISHERIES RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT
The problems mentioned above clearly point to the need for an approach to
fisheries research and development that, like FSRE, focuses on complex livelihood
systems and is multidisciplinary and context sensitive. First, due to the increase in both
coastal population and the rural landless population, small-scale fishing is increasing in
many countries (Smith, 1979). There is an urgent need to consider livelihood alternatives
for these people. In order to address their needs as a livelihood system, the social and
consumption aspects of fisheries as well as the biological and production aspects need to
be investigated. For example, due to overfishing, many full-time fishers become part time
in many areas. These fishers' livelihood systems are a complex combination of economic
activities, which often include fishing, hunting, farming, artisanry, shellfish gathering and
other activities. Thus, the FSRE understanding of small-scale farms as complex systems
of interdependent social and economic activities is necessary to understand small-scale
fisheries also.
Like small farmers, traditional small-scale fishers are reluctant to try innovations
with potentially high gains but with high levels of risk that may threaten their subsistence.
Therefore, potential solutions must be assessed within the context of risk of failure as is
done with adaptability in the FSRE context.
Local cultural conditions must be understood, because solutions that do not fit the
cultural context will be ignored. For example, many coops failed because they could not
provide the same flexibility and security to the fishers as did traditional relations with local
middlemen (Smith, 1979). Cultural context is especially important with respect to gender
division of labor. For example, in many locations the men fish while the women market the
catch or harvest shellfish from near-shore or reef areas, the site-specific and human-
centered focus of the "sondeo" is appropriate for collecting this kind of information.
Studies from around the world have shown that many traditional fisheries systems
have managed the resource well and for the benefit of the local people (Berkes, 1986;
Cordell, 1986; Johannes, 1798; McCay, et al., 1987; Ruddle, 1988). Traditional fishers
often have detailed knowledge of sea conditions and fish behaviors (Johannes, 1981). As
Chambers (1991) points out, where increasing population puts more pressure on natural
resources, small-scale farming systems become more complex, and the management
becomes more intensive. He further states, "As solutions become more complexly linked
to other farm activities and become recognized as more location specific, the need for
using farmers' knowledge increases" (Chambers, 1991). The FSRE participatory, on-site
approach to diagnosis and solution generation is thus of extreme relevance to small-scale
fisheries development.
In the past, the technological, biological, and social issues facing small-scale
fisheries were treated as if they were separate and were researched only within their
disciplines (Smith, 1979). Increasingly, many fisheries experts are recognizing the need for
a multidisciplinary approach to the problems of small-scale fisheries. As Aguero (1991, p.
233) states, "In Latin America as in other regions, small-scale fisheries research
encompasses a wide variety of issues, disciplines and problems. Research on the
complexities of fisheries and their natural environment requires the concurrence of several
disciplinary approaches. Moreover, it is well recognized now that this concurrence of
various disciplines should ideally be simultaneous or inter-disciplinary." The
multidisciplinary approach of FSRE to all phases of rural research and development work
would be well matched to these needs.
Finally, the environmental and cultural diversity of small-scale fisheries calls for the
kind of flexible and site-specific approach that is integral to FSRE methods. Since fish
species and their behaviors change from location to location and from season to season,
no generalized solution, even to the problem ofjust catching fish, will work everywhere.
When the variability of livelihood strategies is also acknowledged, it becomes clear that
solutions to the interdependent problems of small-scale fisheries must be considered with a
very site-specific perspective.
V. CHALLENGES IN ADAPTING AN FSRE APPROACH TO SMALL-SCALE
FISHERIES
Adapting FSRE to fisheries will face several challenges related to the complexity
of the resource base and the social organization of fishers. These challenges will affect all
phases of the FSRE process, from description and diagnosis of problems to dissemination
of solutions. One major difference between fisheries and farming systems is that the fishing
areas are not controlled or worked by households but rather by larger social groups such
as kin groups or communities. This will require FSRE to shift from its traditional
household focus to include collective decision-making and policy.
As mentioned above, this social analysis will require examination of local sea-
tenure systems, intercommunity conflicts, cultural and ethnic factors and gender division
of labor. This greater need to address issues at the community level poses one of the major
challenges to extending an FSRE approach to fisheries. This is because FSRE has typically
been confined to decisions at the individual farm level, due to the constraints of the
institutions within which FSRE practitioners work (Bottrall and John, 1992). However, as
pointed out by Bottrall and John (1992), solutions in common-property contexts such as
group-managed fisheries will require FSRE to add new research techniques to its
repertoire and carry out "action research" jointly with other agencies involved in
community organization.
Likewise, FSRE must expand its scope to address the policy level. Small-scale
fisheries exist in a political context that favors industrial fisheries and often harms small-
scale inshore fisheries. Where traditional forms of sea tenure exist, they can form the basis
for limiting access to the inshore fisheries resource to enhance the security of local fishers.
An FSRE approach should work with these local systems, but as shown above, would still
need to address the policy level to assure legal protection for such systems of local
management.
While the small farm may frequently be mainly a subsistence system with only a
small portion of its products going to the market, fishing livelihoods usually depend on the
market and market linkages. This requires an expansion of the typical FSRE approach to
include various marketing mechanisms and technologies within its recommendation
domains.
The nature of the fisheries resource base also poses great challenges to a typical
FSRE approach. The natural resources of small farms, while quite varied, are generally
stable, and the same solution may be applied over time to the same piece of land.
However, the sea conditions are in constant flux, and fish migrate and change behavior in
response to these changes. This, in turn, means fishers must move and change strategies as
well. FSRE recommendations will have to be more complex and more responsive to
change to deal with the increased spatial and temporal complexity and uncertainty of
fishing as compared to farming.
However, investigation of the appropriate technologies and calculation of yields
for fisheries is fmudamentally different than for farming. Calculating crop yields is relatively
straightforward while accurate inventories offish species is all but impossible, and most
attempts to achieve maximum sustainable yields (MSY) without overharvesting have been
notorious failures. While research can gauge soil nutrients, erosion, and crop yields over
time as indicators of sustainability, experience has shown that it is not possible to know
the precise level of maximum sustainable yield in fisheries until that level has been greatly
exceeded, at which point it becomes extremely difficult to return to sustainable levels.
Therefore, FSRE must develop techniques for making recommendations in much lower
levels of certainty.
Because fisheries (unlike farms) can not add inputs of seed or fertilizer to increase
yield (with few exceptions), fishers rely on the inputs of gear and knowledge to increase
production. The biological, technological and social research challenges become
developing the knowledge offish populations and behavior, as well as the gear and the
social arrangements to harvest the resource at a sustainable level.
Many coastal fisheries of the world are already overfished. This demands finding
income alternatives that do not depend on increasing overall fisheries production and
which can incorporate other economic activities such as agriculture, aquaculture, tourism
and artisanry. To do this, FSRE would have to expand its base of expertise beyond
agricultural crops and livestock to a much wider range of livelihood activities and their
interdependencies. Furthermore, this will also require FSRE to change its focus from
production to conservation of resources, a focus shift which will mean that FSRE must
begin to look seriously at ecological sustainability as one of its criteria for evaluating
alternatives.
Finally, where fishing exists in combination with use of coastal land resources and
estuaries a more traditional FSRE approach could be applied to the aquaculture or farming
components. In Asia and India, fish farming is already common either in conjunction with
rice paddy agriculture or in separate ponds that receive animal and plants wastes as
fertilizers. This is what Ruddle (1991) argues for when he discusses integrating
aquaculture into an integrated farming systems approach. In fact he sees this as having
great potential for creating stronger linkages between all the components of the farm
system, by using waste materials from one activity as energy or material sources for other
activities and creating greater output with less need for outside inputs.
VI. CONCLUSION
While there are many unanswered questions about how the methodology of FSRE
may be best applied to small-scale fisheries, there is a strong trend in current
socioeconomic studies of fisheries to recognize the need for multidisciplinary and human-
centered research (Charles, 1993). It is also widely acknowledged that solutions for fishers
will not be appropriate unless they are site specific, account for the unique mix of cultural
factors and livelihood strategies in an area and draw upon fishers' traditional knowledge.
These are all processes in which FSRE has proven strengths. Major challenges remain in
expanding FSRE to cover the policy-recommendation arena and in adapting its
quantitative tools, such as adaptability analysis to the more complex nature and higher
uncertainty levels in assessing fish stocks and the variable strategies of fishers.
The author wishes to acknowledge the kind assistance of Mr. Ali Ustun and Mr. Allen
Wood for their helpful review and comments on this paper. The final responsibility for any
errors remain the author's.
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