Livelihoods Lab

contributions of Rural Aquaculture to livelihoods in the solomon islands

Small-scale aquaculture (SSA) has been dubbed one of the multiple livelihood activities that can contribute to improved rural livelihoods. In Asia & Africa, where most studies have been conducted, empirical evidence remains inconclusive on whether SSA has led to improved livelihoods of the poorest and marginalised farmers. This study explored SSA from a Pacific Islands context/lens - through the case of small-scale tilapia farming in rural Solomon Islands. The study addressed four research questions: 1) What context-specific factors influence adoption of tilapia farming in rural Solomon Islands? 2) What contribution has tilapia farming make to rural livelihoods to date? 3) What contribution has tilapia farming made to household diets, with the diverse animal source foods consumed? and 4) What barriers & opportunities are formal institutions facing in developing tilapia aquaculture in Solomon Islands?

The findings revealed that socio-economic factors highly influenced the adoption of tilapia farming among rural farmers, and that the current form of tilapia farming contributed negligibly to livelihood outcomes of farmers. Tilapia from aquaculture also contributed negligibly to the animal sourced foods consumed by households, where marine fish remained important amid diverse fish types consumed. Finally, despite formal institutions in Solomon Islands playing important roles to support the sector, a major barrier for the sector was the genetically poor tilapia species used for aquaculture – which is limiting the potential of tilapia farming on food and income security. Hence, while SSA initiatives (e.g. tilapia farming) have been shown to contribute to improved livelihoods in other geographical contexts, in the Pacific Islands context of Solomon Islands, it is not making comparable contributions.

This project, therefore, extends the global narrative on small-scale aquaculture and its impact on food security and livelihoods beyond developing contexts of Asia and Africa to the Pacific Islands. For the Pacific Islands context, this research provides a baseline understanding on the social dynamics that can influence the provision of benefits from small-scale tilapia aquaculture production (as a complementary fish production source) to rural food security and livelihoods.

Principal Investigator: Daykin Harohau supervised by Amy Diedrich, Jessica Blythe (University of Waterloo, Canada), Philippa Cohen (WorldFish), and Marcus Sheaves

Funding: John Allwright Fellowship Scheme - Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and James Cook University International Graduate Scholarship Scheme.