Abstract

There was once a vibrant Feed and Nutrition Network operating under the Asian Fisheries Society. It has ceased to exist. Recently, in two NACA-initiated regional forums, the Sixth Technical Advisory Committee Meeting and the Regional Aquafarmers/Aquabusiness Seminar 2002, respectively, the recommendation was made to organize a regional aquafeed and nutrition network. The former was specific as to the composition of the network i.e. an expert- or people-network which could be layered into the institutional network of NACA; the latter was a broadly worded suggestion coming from the private sector that included feed manufacturers, suppliers, and farmers that would be layered into a proposed Asian regional aquaculture producers organization, which was also endorsed by the meeting. Enabling all those involved in the development, manufacture, distribution and use of feed and its regulation, to share information that would improve their respective work is a huge task. Having them acting continuously as a single discourse community so that the science, regulation and use of feed are in harmony and truly promote aquaculture development is an even bigger challenge.

In light of the heightened concerns with food quality and safety, emphasized by recent developments that involve rejection of or ban on live or processed products or extermination of living animal fed or suspected to have been fed a substance believed to impact on the health of the human who would finally consume it as food - and the impact of all these on the viability and growth of aquaculture development -- the need to share knowledge and information continuously among those that have anything to do with feed is now an urgent imperative.

The new information technology will be an efficient instrument to facilitate this process. But promoting the formation of the discourse community and making it cohesive and committed is a more essential task. The presentation outlines a way to enable this task. It will provide some examples of past and ongoing information activities in aquaculture and draw on some lessons learned from these efforts.