MONITORING THE IMPACT ON POND PRODUCTIVITY FROM LEARNING AT THE COASTAL FIELD SCHOOL 2016-2019

Abstract

The monitoring of aquaculture farmers by the UNDIP/WUR-team aims to assess the progress towards reaching the goals set by the project Building with Nature – Demak. As planned in this first year the sample was taken in one village: Tambakbulusan. As farmers implemented the learning from the Coastal Field Schools during the same season as the training was given, no baseline for this sample was measured. In the village six ponds were monitored during one cropping season; we report on five ponds as one of the ponds was the demonstration pond on which Blue Forest will report. Before stocking the ponds were dried for at least 5 days and composted goat manure was mixed to the sediment. Thereafter an good dosage of home-made organic fertilizer was added to improve water quality; during the culture period a smaller dose was added weekly to maintain the plankton growth in the pond. The farmers prepared the organic fertilizer (compost), called MOL, from fermented rotten fruits, vegetables and household waste. One farmer used an industrial compost and another fed manufactured pellets; thus the five farmers implemented partly the promoted LEISA technology. Several of the cropping cycles couldn’t be completed due to heavy rains or flooding. The ponds were restocked. Some ponds were harvested early to avoid risk of mortality due to increase of salinity of shrimp showing disease symptoms. Other water quality parameters were within the limits for recommended limits for shrimp culture. For one production cycle only from five ponds in one village, the shrimp produced per ha was three times higher for the three LEISA farmers and for the other two 20 times higher than the average found in the Demak baseline for one full year, The average gross margin (income) was IDR 46 million/cycle, i.e. 4.5 times higher, but for the three LEISA farmers this was IDR 14 million/cycle, i.e. 40% higher than the average found in the Demak baseline for one full year. From the limited sample we conclude preliminary that the technology trained by the CFS allows to reach the goals set by BwN regarding pond productivity and income from aquaculture.