Cooperatively Managed Panamanian Rural Fish Ponds
Major empirical results are presented of studies conducted to measure the impact on 22 rural Panamanian communities of a pilot project to integrate livestock and other agricultural activities with a communal approach to aquaculture. Successive chapters discuss: (1) the project's technical interventions (fish species selected, pond layout and management, associated animal husbandry, gardening, silviculture, credit, and technology transfer) and the results of these interventions; (2) the project's nutritional impact - in terms of child height and weight and family diet and budget - on pilot, control, and traditional communities; (3) socioeconomic factors which promoted or retarded project success, the social features of community members who joined project groups, and the technical proficiency of these groups; and (4) the economic impact in terms of budget and rate-of-return analyses, based on both primary and secondary data, of the various integrated production systems tested. Thirty-four statistical tables support these analyses. A brief final section summarizes the benefits gained in the project.