Contribution of genetics to aquaculture: A socioeconomic critique

Abstract

Various genetic options for improving aquaculturai strains are summarized and evaluated from the viewpoint of an individual aquaculturai enterprise. Large scale national breeding programs, marker selection and bioengineering give transient economic benefits to “early adopters”, but, in the long term, will benefit mainly enterprises (farmers) who hold exclusive franchises or own part of the technology. Profits from increased productivity accrue primarily to technology developers, secondarily to the consuming public, and only marginally to farmers. On the other hand, proprietary improvement of a farmer's own broodstock gives a sustainable competitive advantage to individuals who can defend their ownership rights. Several low-investment (but not necessarily low-technology) procedures for developing strains on individual farms are described and illustrated by a hypothetical cash-flow model that gives a startling increase in the farm net profit (doubling after 5 years). Aquaculture would incorporate the technical benefits of modern genetics more rapidly, therefore, if scientists were to develop additional small-scale, low- and/or high-tech procedures that would enable farmers to capture the economic benefits. © 2002, The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science. All rights reserved.