In the beginning of March, our two senior academics Ram Ramanathan and Yanqing Duan embarked on the first voyage to Brazil. They will be coordinating a workshop with local stakeholders as well as field visits. Today they visited the IFC and met with researchers from EPAGRI, the state’s agricultural research and development agency. Dr. Hilton Amaral Junior – veterinarian and researcher – and Dr. Silvano Garcia – geneticist and extensionist -, both involved with aquaculture in Santa Catarina, gave us their opinions on the current status of aquaculture and its sustainability. They are acting as the aquaculture technology (not ICT related) researcher and extensionists as they are providing scientific and technical support and advice to artisanal fish farmers.
In our talks, we learned the following things*:
- The use of technology is quite limited but there is willingness to work with new technology.
- Environmental issues are not considered important to most farmers. As there is an abundant natural freshwater supply, farmers do not consider water recycling important and environmental awareness in general is quite low.
- Taxation and legislation can be a hindering factor in the production process. These bureaucratic are further complicated by a lack of financial incentives.
- These findings are also supported by literature. I will later include some references and we will use these findings in our paper about the project.
(I am currently doing a literature review and these issues come up as well in most literature. I will later include some references and we will use these findings in our paper about the project.)
