An Impact Evaluation of the Development of Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia and Their Dissemination in Selected Countries

Abstract

Aquaculture, or fish farming, is the fastest growing animal food-producing sector in the world. In Southeast Asia, tilapia farming is a major factor in this phenomenon and has developed mainly around one species, Nile tilapia. Tilapia farming in Asia began to prosper in the 1970s and was accompanied by region-wide advances in hatchery technology and pond husbandry. Unlike in land animal farming, where selective breeding is centuries old, the genetic aspects of most fish farming, including tilapia farming, were neglected until the mid-1980s. By that time, the consequences of this lack of attention to genetics was beginning to show in stagnating tilapia yields. In response, the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM; now the WorldFish Center) and the Institute for Aquaculture Research, Norway (AKVAFORSK) and their aquaculture research partners in the Philippines, proposed an international research and development effort on the genetic improvement of farmed tilapia in order to increase productivity, with all necessary environmental safeguards