Development of Aquaculture in Laos with Hungarian Assistance

Abstract

Food security for the world’s growing population is one of the biggest challenges of the future due to resource constraints and global climate change. Fish and other aquatic foods can play a prominent role in the food supply, especially as the ecological footprint of aquaculture is smaller than that of other food production systems. Although the production of marine aquaculture shows an increasing trend, freshwater aquaculture remains dominant in world aquaculture production, especially in developing countries. The resilience of developing countries to the future challenges in food production is very low, so many international projects are trying to improve the situation. Laos is one of the least developed countries of the world, where aquaculture plays an important role in fish supply and employment. In Laos, several international projects are addressed to develop the agricultural economy and food supply, but Hungary is one of the largest donors in this field, given the traditional agricultural relations and strategic cooperation between the two countries. Although the abundance of aquatic resources provides a good opportunity for the development of fisheries and aquaculture in Laos, the growth of the fishery sector is hampered by several factors. These include the lack of good quality stocking material and fish feed, the underdeveloped infrastructure and institutional system, funding problems and weak human resources. The main purpose of the tied aid loans provided by the Hungarian government to Laos is to improve food safety and food security. The development of the fish value chain plays an important role in these programs, which can be considered as a good example even on international level. Hungarian projects also help Hungarian institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises to strengthen their presence in Southeast Asia, that is a region of the world where economy is developing in a dynamic way.