Cambodias capital Phnom Penh enjoys a beautiful setting on the Mekong. The river provides both transport and income for the city's one million population.

The PAPUSSA Programme has made available an increasing amount of information on peri-urban aquatic production systems in South-East Asian cities, their benefits and constraints. To further support the strengthening the peri-urban aquatic production and marketing systems in the above-mentioned cities, as well as in other South-East Asian cities, stakeholders in these cities identified 4 key recommendations (see below) to guide policy makers and other senior stakeholders in further development of the sector. These recommendations include the need to:

Stuart Bunting, David Little and William Leschen

In: Cities Farming for the Future - Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities

The status of urban aquaculture is assessed in this chapter and the most important literature and knowledge sources are discussed providing a comprehensive overview that highlights challenges facing decision-makers, planners and stakeholders in developing policies, programmes and management strategies that facilitate sustainable, equitable and safe urban aquaculture. The prevailing characteristics of existing urban aquaculture activities are described and the associated benefits are discussed. The recognised constraints and emerging threats to urban aquaculture are then presented. Following this assessment important knowledge gaps and challenges facing planners, managers and other stakeholders are identified and potential approaches to deal with the issues raised are proposed.

René van Veenhuizen

In: Cities Farming for the Future - Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities

Attention to urban agriculture has increased markedly during the last couple of decades. The number of activities to promote urban agriculture at international, national and local level has grown, but urban farmers in many cities in the world still struggle to get their main survival strategy recognised by city authorities. The demand of policy makers and local practitioners for inspiring examples of successful policies and actions in cities is therefore growing. Urban agriculture contributes to a wide variety of urban issues and is increasingly being accepted and used as a tool in sustainable city development. Currently the challenge is its integration into city planning and facilitation of its multiple benefits for urban inhabitants. This book seeks to present the current state of affairs regarding urban agriculture and sustainable urban development.

Urban Aquaculture, introduced by: Stuart Bunting and David C. Little (Institute of Aquaculture, Stirling, Scotland)

In: Annotated Bibliography on Urban Agriculture

Urban Agriculture Magazine
Urban Aquatic Production
ISSN 1571-6244
No. 14, June 2005

UA Magazine is published three times a year by the Network of Resource Centres for Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF), under the Cities Farming for the Future Programme, which is financed by DGIS, the Netherlands, and IDRC, Canada.
UA Magazine is translated into French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Turkish, and distributed in separate editions through the RUAF regional networks, and is also available on www.ruaf.org.

With contributions from
Dr Eddie Kofi Abban and Mr. Ransford Cudjoe

In: UA Magazine No. 14 - Urban Aquatic Production

Fish farming was taken up enthusiastically in the late 1970’s by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) as an alternate income-generating venture. It was seen as an important part of the “Operation Feed Yourself “(OFY) that was launched by the then government. Efforts were made to develop fish farms on all available land that could not be used for farming at that time and where water was readily available. A few of the fish farmers made successes, but due to lack of training and information the majority ran into management problems.  The fish farming programme to reduce poverty in the urban and periurban community failed. Within the last five years also, fish farming or aquaculture as an enterprise is becoming acknowledged by both urban and rural communities, but is gaining ground especially in urban centres.

J. A. Afolabi, P. B. Imoudu and O. A. Fagbenro

In: UA Magazine No. 14 - Urban Aquatic Production

Two major constraints to the establishment of fish culture enterprises in Nigeria include lack of initial capital input and the acquisition and ownership of land.  The rental price of land suitable for modern and conventional pond fish culture becomes prohibitive and unaffordable especially in urban centres because of competing and conflicting uses. Family-scale (backyard) aquaculture in periurban areas has been recommended in Nigeria as an economical method of producing fish. The homestead concrete tank has been developed as an alternative and suitable enclosure for backyard fish culture.