Peter Edwards to mentor the new Sustainable Farming Systems Programme

At its recent meeting in Cambodia, the 23rd Governing Council endorsed some significant changes to the NACA Work Plan. One of the key changes is the formation of the Sustainable Farming Systems Programme, which will incorporate the former Inland Aquaculture and Coastal Aquaculture Programmes. One of the key issues the new programme will address is sustainable intensification, seeking to increase the productivity of farming systems through gains in efficiency, rather than only through additional resource inputs. As the global population continues to grow, feeding the world without further degrading the environment is a key challenge that must be met.

We are pleased to announce that the Sustainable Farming Systems Programme will be mentored by Prof. Peter Edwards, who will already be well known to many people in the network. Prof. Edwards is an Emeritus Professor at the Asian Institute of Technology, where he founded the aquaculture programme and he has 36 years of experience in aquaculture education, research and development in the Asian region. He will also be familiar to readers of Aquaculture Asia Magazine, for which he has written a regular column on rural aquaculture for many years.

NACA wishes to welcome Prof. Edwards and looks forward to his assistance with the development of the Sustainable Farming Systems Programme.

Workshop on Proficiency Testing Programme for Aquatic Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratories in Asia-Pacific

The two-day regional workshop was held at Centara Grand Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. It was organized by NACA with funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) and in collaboration with Australian National Quality Assurance Programme (ANQAP) and the Animal Health Laboratory of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The workshop was undertaken as a preliminary activity of the whole Regional Proficiency Testing (RPT) Programme, with the following specific objectives:

• To strengthen Asia’s regional capability to diagnose important aquatic animal diseases that impact on trade, industry sustainability and/or productivity.
• To train participating laboratory personnel in diagnostic standards, and proficiency testing procedures, and to provide technical assistance to improve laboratory performance.
• To establish a laboratory proficiency testing programme that meets regional needs and which can be accessed following completion of the project.