Success Factors in Aquaculture Enterprises in the Pacific
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Four enterprises in four different Pacific Island Countries provide the information for this case study. The relevance of the case enterprises is set into the Pacific Region context by crosschecking their attributes and the lessons that they provide against the regional issues in and aspirations for aquaculture development. One regional as well as global issue is the compatibility of the goal of food security and profitability; the study shows evidence they are not incompatible and that they can in fact strengthen each other. The cases also demonstrate business models and government interventions that provide economic incentives to farmers to stay in farming without dependence on gratuities and market-distorting subsidies that also tend to reduce self-reliance of farmers. The study provides indications of the significance and impact of the availability, status and application of the farm assets on overall farm performance and on each of the nine indicators of farm performance, namely, the capability of the farm to: 1. achieve profitability, 2. reduce operational cost/ raise technical efficiency, 3. manage financial/economic risk, 4. manage natural risk, 5. manage biological risk, 6. manage social risk, 7. compete in the market, 8. make innovations in business strategy, production and marketing, farm processes, and on technology, and (9) expand. Information was collected through two questionnaires accomplished by the respondents who are owners, managers or advisors of the case farms. An adaptation of the sustainable livelihoods approach, in particular the asset pentagon, was used as the analytical framework; the five livelihood capitals, financial, physical, social, natural/biological, and human, were adapted as “farm assets”. From the result, strategic and practical lessons were drawn on the acquisition, maintenance and application of farm assets to improve farm performance and perhaps achieve farm sustainability, and best practices were gleaned that farmers or farm managers could observe to improve the economic, environmental and social objectives of their aquaculture enterprises. A set of follow up actions is recommended to disseminate and promote the practical application of the findings of this study to the entire region.