Fishermen seek policy changes

Small-scale fishermen from the South have joined the Forum of the Poor to push for inclusion of a sustainable fishery and aquaculture policy within the framework of the 1997-2001 agricultural action plan.

Forum representatives together with members of the Alternative Agriculture Group and the Federation of Southern Small-scale Fishermen met Agriculture Ministry officials and urged them to review the action plan, saying it was too supportive to agro-business firms.

They want the plan revised to serve small-scale farmers and sustainable farm schemes to bring it in line with the Eighth National Economic and Social Development Plan.

The two sides had agreed in principle on these issues last week but yesterday's talks were expanded to cover the fishery and aquaculture sector.

Banchong Nasae, leader of the Federation of Southern Small-scale Fishermen, criticised the 4.6-billion-baht plan to build a seawater irrigation system to support shrimp farming as destructive to coastal resources which would cause conflicts between shrimp farmers and coastal farmers whose farmland would be salinated from intruding brine.

"The eighth plan has clearly indicated that shrimp farming is not a sustainable economic activity, but the ministry action plan insists on spending a lot of money to support it," he said.

"The plan is profitable for shrimp farmers, but pollution and mangrove forest destruction from shrimp farming are damaging the lives of fisherfolk and coastal farmers," he added.

The federation and the panel of officials chaired by Boonmee Jantarawong, deputy chief of the Office of Agricultural Economics, finally agreed that the seawater irrigation system could be done but beneficiaries of the project must pay the investment cost.

In addition, shrimp farms must be confined to areas which are not harmful to coastal resources and shrimp farmers have to strictly treat contaminated water and effluent from the farms.

The federation also opposed the ministry's plan to go ahead with mangrove forest concessions throughout the country. The concession ban had been approved in principle by the previous administration, but Agriculture Minister Chucheep Harnsawat refused to impose the ban, claiming the concession was not the root cause of mangrove destruction.

But no conclusion on the issue has been reached.

They ministry is to gather forum demands concerning sustainable farming aspects which will be submitted to the cabinet meeting next Tuesday.

After that the next round of talks will be held to consider the plan in detail and, if approved, the ministry will have to implement the plan and allocate a budget for it.