Hishamunda, Junning Cai, & PingSun Leung
Commercial aquaculture
and economic growth,
poverty alleviation and
food security
FAO Fisheries and AquacultureTechnical Paper; No. 512. Rome, FAO. 2009. 69p.
Abstract
This paper proposes some methods for quantifying the contribution of aquaculture to
national economies, poverty alleviation and food security so as to improve the much
needed political and financial support to the sector for its adequate development.
Aquaculture’s contribution to a country’s economy can be measured by “aquaculture
value-added multiplier”, an indicator that represents the “increase in gross domestic
product corresponding to a one-unit increase in aquaculture value-added. As
alleviating poverty occurs by creating well paying jobs, evaluation of the contribution
of aquaculture to poverty alleviation can be done through “aquaculture employment
multiplier”, the increase in the total employment for the entire economy corresponding
to one extra job created in aquaculture.
The contribution to food availability, one
of the three dimensions of food security, can be assessed through the “net sum of
protein-equivalent” (direct contribution) and the “ratio between the aquaculture net
foreign exchange earning and the total value of food imports” (indirect contribution).
“Aquaculture labour-income and employment multipliers” can be used to quantify
aquaculture’s contribution to food access, the second dimension of food security.
Aquaculture tax multiplier and the “aquaculture ratio between the net foreign
exchange earning” and the “whole economy net foreign exchange earning” can be used
to estimate the sector’s contribution to food utilization, the third dimension of food
security. |
