GALAHGROW: COMMUNITY-BASED SHRIMP AQUACULTURE FOR RURAL ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJEMP.935035Keywords:
Community Aquaculture, Community Entrepreneurship, Pond Management Shrimp Farming, Rural EconomyAbstract
Shrimp aquaculture has potential to support food production and rural economic development, but community-based projects often face water-quality problems, disease outbreaks, rising feed costs, weak waste management, limited technical knowledge and inconsistent labour participation. This study examined GalahGrow as a community-based shrimp aquaculture initiative and explored its operational challenges, enabling factors and sustainability strategies. A qualitative case-study design involved 30 purposively selected participants: eight local residents, 15 community representatives, five project facilitators and two aquaculture stakeholders. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews, field observation and document analysis and analysed thematically. Five themes were identified: water quality and pond cleanliness; disease control and biosecurity; operating costs and feed dependency; technical skills and labour commitment; and continuous training with appropriate technology. Drawing on the community-based enterprise perspective and aquaculture innovation-systems literature, the findings indicate that technical resources alone are insufficient without collective participation, management capability, institutional guidance and market linkages. The proposed GalahGrow Community Aquaculture Empowerment Model integrates these technical, organisational and enterprise conditions into a context-specific framework. The findings suggest potential pathways for rural economic empowerment but do not establish causal income or livelihood effects.
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