The newly established Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of the Asian Fisheries Society recently published an Asian Fisheries Science Special Issue, titled "Engendering Security in Fisheries and Aquaculture." The special issue includes research papers, technical papers, short communications, and extended abstracts based on presentations delivered at the 6th Global Symposium on Gender in Aquaculture held at the 11th Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum in Bangkok, Thailand, 3-7 August 2016.

The issue includes one technical paper and three short communications written by AquaFish Innovation Lab director, staff and partners in Nepal and Bangladesh - be sure to check out their research below.

AquaFish Innovation Lab Gender Specialist, Morgan Chow, AquaFish Director, Dr. Hillary Egna, and their collaborator Jevin West from University of Washington published a technical paper, titled "Towards assessing gender authorship in aquaculture publications." The authors were the first to investigate gender authorship in aquaculture-related peer-reviewed literature. Preliminary results indicated the overall percentage of women authorship in aquaculture-related publications ranged from 13.8% to 16.1%. Such a low percentage suggests under representation of women and gender inequity in authorship in aquaculture-related literature. Read more..

AquaFish Innovation Lab partners, Dr. Sunila Rai and Dr. Madhav Shrestha, of Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU) in Nepal along with AquaFish Innovation Lab Principal Investigator (PI), Dr. James Diana, of the University of Michigan, and Dr. Egna published a short communication titled, “Involving women in field-testing of periphyton enhanced aquaculture system for nutrition security.” Partners collaborated with 37 women farmers from two districts in Nepal to conduct on-farm carp polyculture trials. The trials evaluated the effect of adding bamboo to aquaculture ponds to serve as substrate for periphyton growth. Periphyton, a mixture of algae and microbes, grows on surfaces and provides food for carp, thus providing a natural food alternative that could reduce feed costs for small-scale farmers. Read more...

Dr. Shrestha also collaborated with AquaFish partner, Dr. Jay Dev Bista from AFU, and Kiran Amatya from the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture Nepal to publish another short communication, titled “Women in riverbed aquaculture for livelihoods in foothills of Nepal.” To improve household food security and nutrition of Nepalese communities, authors trained women’s groups on the use of gravel riverbeds for pond aquaculture. Read more...

AquaFish Innovation Lab partner, Dr. Sharoz Mahean Haque from Bangladesh Agricultural University, along with Dr. Egna, and AquaFish Innovation Lab PI, Dr. Russell Borski from North Carolina State University published a short communication, titled “Improving the livelihood for marginalized women’s households in southwest Bangladesh through aquaculture.” The goal of this study was to integrate women’s participation in tilapia-mud crab aquaculture to improve nutrition and food security of women-led households in rural Bangladesh. Read more...