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Special Reports - Agriculture
Case Study 2
Aquaculture Project in Belize
of raw materials used in feed production and vendors
involved in sales and marketing. On this basis, our
project manager worked with cooperating units to jointly
develop a results-oriented project plan and establish a
specific consensus on project implementation. This plan,
completed by the beginning of 2012, was confirmed
through the signing of a bilateral agreement that set out
the rights and obligations of Taiwanese and Belizean
stakeholders.
Helping to Establish a Foundation for Industry
In this project, we will help Belize establish and
develop a foundation for small-scale tilapia production
primarily through capacity building and institutional
improvements. These tasks are described below.
•
Capacity Building:
By dispatching a number of
Taiwanese aquaculture specialists to provide guidance
on site in Belize, we will assist Belize in establishing
best practices for fry management and tilapia breeding.
We will also train a selection of Belizean technicians
from the Fisheries Department and provide guidance
on setting up fishermen’s organizations and small-scale
fishery distribution centers to improve local marketing
and promotional abilities.
•
Institutional Improvements:
The project’s consultancy-
based approach will assist cooperating units in drafting
a National Tilapia Aquaculture Development Plan and
establish a plan to operate a tilapia hatchery center.
In this way, the project will strengthen the institutional
capacity of cooperating organizations and establish the
basic capacity Belize needs to develop its aquaculture
sector.
By the time the project is complete, Belize should
have the capacity to meet its objective of producing one
million tilapia fingerlings domestically per year — enough
to fully satisfy the needs of local tilapia farmers.
A Taiwanese consultant, dispatched on short-term assignment as part of
efforts to refine the operations of the Aquaculture Project in Belize, helps
out a local fish farmer while conducting appraisal work on the state of
aquaculture in the country.
Belize is blessed with vast expanses of land and
abundant water resources — all of the prerequisites
needed to support the development of a successful
aquaculture sector. At present, however, the country’s
industry is hampered by certain constraints, such as
a reliance on expensive imports of fry feed. Although
many farmers have shown strong interest in investing
in the aquaculture industry, they face excessively high
production thresholds due to expensive raw materials.
Insufficient domestic fry production in Belize has limited
the development of the aquaculture industry. With these
issues in mind, the Belizean government approached the
TaiwanICDF for assistance in developing a small-scale
tilapia industry in Belize. The TaiwanICDF started this
project in response to Belize’s request.
Bringing Projects to Fruition with a Project
Management System
During the project appraisal process, we dispatched
a project manager to Belize so that we could understand
the views and needs of the various stakeholders in
the aquaculture industry and ensure that the project
would effectively respond to Belize’s needs. Since
then, hundreds of local people have been involved in
the project’s activities, including personnel from the
Agriculture Department, the Fisheries Department and
the Ministry of Works, as well as fish farmers, producers
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