Work resumes

Work has resumed for SEAT-KU project. The team had a meeting last 7th December to discuss status of work and to revise plans for field work. There was also discussion on what items needed to be clarified with WP partners and how things will be adjusted due to the delayed schedule. Early this week the team met again to present plans for field work in the coming months, including data input, contacting respondents for further work, and database management.

The revised field work schedule (immediate) is as follows:
14-15 Dec: farm surveys in Chachoengsao (WP5,6,7)
19-23 Dec: farm surveys in Surat Thani (WP5,6,7)
26-30 Dec: farm surveys in Chanthaburi (WP5,6,7)
Jan 2012: farm surveys in Nakhon Pathom (WP5,6,7) - depends on post-flood situation

For other WP work such as LCA & LCC (WP3/5), sample collection (WP4), and SH workshop (WP8), these are already included in the schedule. On-going work related to LCA/LCC involves updating potential respondents' lists and making contacts with them through various means such as letters, personal contact, and networking. Recruitment of more field staff is also on-going.

Likewise, a discussion on action research topics was also started with the action research manager in attendance. Main items discussed were: checking the language of the SOS posters, deliverable protocols, additional topics from farmers who are willing to conduct research, action research to check products in the field and to produce policy papers.

tilapia in cages

Harvested tilapia from cages are carried in baskets ...

... and transported in this FG tank and sold live in local markets!

Project updates

As Nov ends and Dec starts, we see the end of the flooding at KU campus. However in other parts of the country esp in central region and around Bangkok, water has not receded yet. At KU, water has been pumped out since last week and nearly the whole campus is now dry. The cleaning up operation also started a few days ago and it is hoped that everything will be ready by next week for offices to open. (Photos)


We have informed the project team to report back to work next week. While grounded by the flooding in their respective areas, the team had been working remotely, communicating with various partners esp with WP coordinators in relation to the field work we are currently doing (WPs3,4,5,6,7). Also planning for the next round of field work, which this time will involve going to the south to cover the shrimp areas there. The schedule will depend on the situation in the field of the identified respondents.


Likewise we have also been scanning for notable news items related to aquaculture and will try to post the links on the right hand corner of this blog, or in the News page.


We have also been closely discussing and working with the project coordinators, U of Stirling, regarding current and future work such as for project management in general (WP1) and project meeting in Vietnam, and more specifically about paper publications from survey efforts, including data analysis (WP2), planning for action research esp with SMEs (WP9) and dissemination of project outputs (WP12).


We are also planning with the coordinators regarding LCA/LCC work (WPs3,5), and to prepare and think of ways to contact the various value chain actors who will be interested to participate in this part of the project. The questionnaires have been prepared and translated with all inputs from both WP coordinators/ researchers and local team, which is the same as with all other research survey instruments used in this project.


Due to the flooding situation, the timing for sample (water, sediment, feed) collection and analysis for WP4 has to be moved to the next season. The first sample collection will start in March 2012, then in June, August and November.


WP8 coordinators (U of Bergen) have also communicated with us regarding the upcoming stakeholder workshop next year and the details about preparation and other specifics. We plan to discuss more of the details when we meet in Cantho during the project meeting.


The KU PI, Dr Key Satapornvanit has been invited to participate in the meeting on "Asian Collaboration on Agricultural and Food Ethics - EurSafe/Asia", which is organised by Prof Matthias Kaiser (President and Foundiing Member, European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics - EurSafe, U of Bergen, WP8 Coordinator) and Dr Kate Millar (Center for Applied Bioethics, U of Nottingham UK). This will be held on 2 Dec 2011 at UNESCO Bangkok. The main purpose is to explore the setting up of an Asian Chapter of EurSafe.  


We also continue to add into our value chain metadatabase as we meet new contacts through meetings and networking activities. 

Submissions to Project Coordinator (UoS)

The SEAT-KU team has already submitted the following documents for the period to the SEAT Project Coordinator at the University of Stirling:

1. Scoping Survey Report:  Understanding sustainability constraints for four internationally-traded farmed seafood species from local stakeholder perceptions in Thailand

2. State of the System Workshop Report: Sustaining Value Chains for Shrimp and Tilapia in Thailand
3. SOS Posters:
- Sustaining the Shrimp Value Chain in Thailand
- Sustaining the Tilapia Value Chain in Thailand

The Thai version of items 2 & 3 are currently being translated.

Flood situation @ KU

Water inside the campus has gone down a bit. We are awaiting official announcement on when it would be safe to go back to work. However for classes it has been announced that 2nd semester classes will start on 21st December. In the meantime SEAT Thai team communicate through emails. We hope to be able to resume field work soon to cover remaining surveys for WPs 5,6,7, and WP3, as well as collect water, soil and sediment samples for WP4.

A number of relief operations are being conducted by different groups to provide food and other stuff to communities surrounding the campus who are stranded in their homes.

More photos

To SEAT Partners

Please be informed that the SEAT Project team has stopped field work at the moment due to the flood situation in Thailand. Kasetsart University has closed indefinitely as water has gone inside the campus. Other areas such as some of our survey sites have also been inundated. Project team members have gone home as they also need to take care of their own residences.

Thank you for those who have sent emails to ask about the situation. However emails related to field work may not be responded to soonest by field team. 

Administration Building at KU
(Source: http://www.facebook.com/kucityfanpage)

The way going to the Faculty of Fisheries
(source: http://www.facebook.com/kucityfanpage) 

Source: http://www.facebook.com/kucityfanpage

LINKS:

Flood hits Kasetsart University 
Flood photos 
More flood photos (from kucityfanpage)
More flood photos (from Bangkok Post)

In-depth surveys & action research

Since July, the team has been busy with the in-depth surveys. These are follow-on surveys after the integrated survey we did last Nov 2010 to March 2011. The respondents for the follow-on surveys are a subset of the 405 farmers we interviewed during the integrated survey.

These are the types of in-depth surveys and their status:

• Chemical shops (WP6&7) - already conducted
• Chemical use in farms (WP6&7) - on-going
• Livelihood surveys (WP5) - on-going
• Collecting tilapia samples for FZT (WP6) - on-going
• Collecting water, sediment and feed samples (WP4) - waiting for farm list
• Life Cycle Assessment/Life Cycle Costing (WP3&5) - contacting prospective respondents across the value chain

All the research sites have been reported to be affected by the flooding in Thailand so access to the farms is limited at the moment.

We are also planning for the action research (WP9) with SMEs (local and European) which will be implemented next year.

schedule of work

Monitoring Protocol Workshop



During 4-8 July 2011, the SEAT Project held a Monitoring Protocol Workshop at Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand. The sessions were held at the meeting rooms of KU Home and Faculty of Fisheries. Field work was conducted in one of the tilapia cage sites in Suphanburi province. Analytical lab exercises were conducted at the Department of Fishery Biology Laboratory of the Faculty of Fisheries at KU. The workshop, organized by WP7-Wageningen University partners (Prof Paul van den Brink & PhD student Andreu Rico) with logistics & technical support from SEAT-KU, was attended by representatives of all Asian partners and those from WP4-University of Stirling (Prof Lindsay Ross, Ms Lynn Munro) and WP6-University of Copenhagen (Dr Anders Dalsgaard, Mr Jesper Clausen).

The workshop was held to discuss the monitoring protocols for work within WP4 (Environmental Models), WP6 (Food Safety and Public Health) & WP7 (Environmental Contamination), as activities have to be done in the same areas with the same stakeholders and within the same time frame, as much as possible. 

Each Asian partner was represented by the researchers in charge of SEAT project work or the respective WP. The Asian partners present were Bangladesh Agricultural University (Dr Ripon, Hero-WP6, Ali), Cantho University (Dr Phuong, Dr Son, Phu-WP6), Shanghai Ocean University (Prof Jiang Min, Li Shikang-WP7, Li Kang-WP6), and Kasetsart University (Dr Kriengkrai, Dr Prapansak-WP6,7, Jugk-WP7, Bow-WP4&7, Jigsz, Beach-WP4&7, Ben-WP6, Pawin-WP6). WP numbers after researcher names refer to their specific work assignments within SEAT. Those without WP numbers after their names are focusing on all the three WPs (4,6,7) and overseeing work on them. Also attending were Dr Jason Weeks of CEFAS (WP11) and Dr Henry Madsen (WP6-UCopenhagen).

The workshop was a good approach in integrating the activities of different work packages in a big project like SEAT. Through the exchange of information and deliberation of issues and plans, the whole group was made aware of what each WP and researcher wanted to do, what could and could not be done, and the potential and constraints of proposed activities. The discussion was not only limited to among European partners since the ideas and insights as well as background knowledge of the Asian partners were also taken into consideration.

Surely this is one way of acting on the need to maximise and/or make efficient use of resources, at the same time strengthening team work and supporting each other to achieve the WP deliverables.

It is hoped now that the plans made will come into fruition through the group effort of all concerned.

Photo credits: Chairit Thammachit

Post-SOS Workshop meetings

The day after the SOS workshop, the SEAT project team had a meeting to discuss outcomes of the workshop. The priority was to translate all group outputs into English. The facilitation team who took care of each stakeholder group translated their group's outputs. Each team had a foreign team member to assist in writing up the responses. It was crucial for the responses to be translated into English as the SOS workshop report had to be prepared in both languages. It would also help the team in synthesizing the responses and summarising major issues that came up during the workshop.

Workshop outputs especially on sustainability indicators will be included in posters on sustaining value chains of tilapia and shrimp in Thailand. These posters will be distributed to the stakeholders and the general public to inform and raise awareness on sustainability aspects.

Pre-SOS workshop preps

SEAT-KU team started preparing for the SOS workshop months earlier. While the integrated survey was still being conducted in February, we already started to identify potential participants to be invited, based on the guidelines in the Deliverable Protocol from UoS. The venue and the dates have already been discussed and agreed upon with the UoS team (Dave, Francis) when we (Kriengkrai, Arlene, Wanwichanee) were in Kochi in January. We knew that we needed to start the preparations sooner due to the various project activities going on and coming, as all work have to be coordinated and managed accordingly. The SOS workshop is an important part of the project especially for us local partners, wherein we have to be fully involved in all aspects.

A list of potential participants was drawn up together with spare invitees. These came from our network of contacts along the value chain, as well as from the existing list of key informants and survey respondents of the SEAT project. As the SOS workshop is a local meeting in Chanthaburi, the participants have to be from the local area as much as possible esp the shrimp producers and other local stakeholders. However, since the project is working on both shrimp and tilapia, we also invited representatives of our respondents in nearby Chachoengsao to represent the tilapia producers.

In addition, the main logistics involved which was the actual venue, in this case a conference room, had also to be booked in advance. So we identified the venue of the workshop to be in a local hotel and preliminary contacts were made as early as March to secure booking of rooms and meeting rooms. Subsequent contacts were made later on in person and through email, phone and fax for further confirmations.

Actual invitations were posted in April after the long Thai new year holiday, and 3 main confirmations were made to the invitees during the weeks until the day prior to the workshop. First confirmation was to ensure they have received the invitations and to ask about their acceptance. Second was to follow-up on confirmations and to invite other replacements. And third (during the 2 days prior to the workshop) to remind those attending of the workshop date and time.

Logistical as well as technical preparations were also done simultaneously. Logistics involved confirmations of bookings for hotel, vehicles, and related matters; staffing and staff orientation for the workshop proper; and materials preparation.

Technical preparations involved the finalising the programme and contents of the workshop, analysis of survey data and extracting major highlights to formulate questions for focus group activities, preparing materials for the exercises, and preparing various presentations from project information to project results. All materials in English were translated into Thai.

A skeletal staff was working in the office on the SOS workshop while the rest of the Thai team were in the field for the WP5&WP8 field work during the month of April & May. The week prior to the SOS workshop, there were only 3 working days due to the Thai holidays, so it was good that we started our preparations well in advance. Since the team was leaving for Chanthaburi on Sunday 22 May, we held an  SOS workshop orientation for staff on 20 May, a Friday. We gave a briefing about the SOS workshop and what are the detailed activities to be done. Esp. important was the intensive facilitation and documentation during the focus group activities. And we informed everybody that we have to be flexible and ready for any changes that will be made during the preparation days and the actual SOS workshop.

The two days 23-24 May in Chanthaburi were hectic and intensive as the SEAT-KU team met with the U of Stirling team who are coordinators of the project. We were joined also by the PI of the U of Bergen and  a representative each of the Asian partners, namely from Bangladesh Agricultural University, Cantho University and the Shanghai Ocean University. So there were 20 of us all in all, working together, even late into the night until the early morning hours to finalise preparations for the 25 May SOS workshop.

Thanks to everybody for all the help and support you have provided.

State of the System (SOS) Workshop conducted in Thailand

ภาษาไทย

The SOS Workshop of the SEAT Project in Thailand was conducted on 25 May 2011 at KP Grand Chanthaburi Hotel, Amphur Muang, Chanthaburi Province. This is the last of a series of SOS workshops which began in Bangladesh in March, China in April, Vietnam in mid-May, and now Thailand.

The workshop was attended by a diverse group of aquaculture stakeholders along the shrimp and tilapia value chains. The participants came mainly from the provinces of Chanthaburi (shrimp) and Chachoengsao (tilapia). The stakeholder groups represented included shrimp and tilapia producers, input/service providers, shrimp and nursery operators, processors and exporters and institutions (university, NGO). The whole SEAT-KU project team led by Dr. Kriengkrai Satapornvanit were there along with the SEAT team members from the University of Stirling (Prof David Little, Dr Francis Murray, Douglas Waley), University of Bergen (Prof Matthias Kaiser), Bangladesh Agricultural University (M.M. Haque/Ripon), Can Tho University (Lam Phan Thanh) and Shanghai Ocean University (Wenbo Zhang).

The main objectives of the workshop were:

• To make the knowledge generated during the early stages of the project available to those involved in its development (the stakeholders themselves);
• To clarify and verify the information collected; and,
• To understand stakeholder ideas and perceptions regarding future challenges and opportunities, and how the changes in them will be measured over time.

To achieve the above objectives the workshop had various activities such as presentation of project outcomes featuring highlights of the scoping and integrated surveys, presentation of European consumer attitudes and trends, an individual exercise on sustainability factors, group discussions related to questions arising from the results and ways to measure sustainability indicators and changes, and critiquing/commenting of group outputs by the participants themselves.

Workshop outputs will include a final report in both English and Thai, information posters on the sustainability of value chains of shrimp and tilapia in both English and Thai, and a documentation of the process of the SOS workshop.

The SOS Workshop consisted of the following activities and topics: 

Morning ช่วงเช้า

Participant registration tea/coffee & Exercise I (Individual Sustainability Questionnaires)

ลงทะเบียน และ อาหารว่าง ชา/กาแฟ และมีการตอบคำถามในแบบสอบถามเกี่ยวกับความยั่งยืน (ได้รับพร้อมกับการลงทะเบียน)

Welcome & introductions – Prof David Little & Dr Kriengkrai Satapornvanit

กล่าวยินดีต้อนรับและการแนะนำผู้ร่วมประชุมเป็นแต่ละกลุ่ม ๆ ไม่เน้นบุคคล

Objectives of the workshop, Introduction to project and project activities – Dr Kriengkrai S.

นำเสนอวัตถุประสงค์ของการประชุมเชิงปฏิบัติการและเบื้องต้นเกี่ยวกับโครงการ และจกรมของโครงการฯ

Overview of outcomes over the first year of the project

นำเสนอผลภาพรวมของการทำงานในปีแรกของโครงการ

Part 1: Systems overview – Dr Kulapa Kuldilok

      นำเสนอภาพรวมของระบบต่างที่เกี่ยวข้องจากช่วงปีที่ผ่านมา

Part 2: Main findings from integrated survey – Dr Kriengkrai S.

นำเสนอสรุปประเด็นสำคัญจากการสำรวจแบบบูรณาการ

Focus Group Activity 1: Clarifying key issues emerging from work so far

กิจกรรมการสนทนาช่วงที่ 1: นำเสนอประเด็นสำคัญที่ต้องชี้แจ้ง และคำถามจากผู้ร่วมสัมมนาจากประเด็นข้างต้น (สองประเด็น)

Focus Group Activity 2: Perspectives on your current situation

กิจกรรมการสนทนาช่วงที่ 2: มุมมองต่อสถานการณ์ในปัจจุบันของท่าน

Afternoon: Moving the industry forward 

บ่าย : มองอุตสาหกรรมไปข้างหน้า 

Presentation by Prof David Little (with Dr Kriengkrai): Seafood in Europe: what happens to your product?
ซีฟู้ดในยุโรป: จะเกิดอะไรขึ้นกับผลิตภัณฑ์ของท่าน ?

Slide showing: Aquaculture systems in Bangladesh, China, Thailand and Vietnam

Focus Group Activity 3: Working together to improve and move the industry forward

กิจกรรมการสนทนาช่วงที่ 3: การทำงานร่วมกันเพื่อปรับปรุงและขับเคลื่อนอุตสาหกรรมไปข้างหน้า

Wrap-up/closing/thanks    สรุป/ในงานพิธีปิด/ขอบคุณ

Group photo  กลุ่มถ่ายภาพ   

Souvenirs ของที่ระลึก

A feedback form will be sent to the participants in the coming weeks to determine reactions and learnings from the workshop. We thank everyone who took the time to participate in the workshop and share their opinions and comments. We are looking forward to further collaboration with you. 

Photo credit: Wenbo Zhang

Photo credit: Wenbo Zhang

Photo credit: Wenbo Zhang

Note: Photos by ANS unless otherwise stated.

Activity updates

SEAT-KU team represented by Dr Kriengkrai and Ms Arlene attended the Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum held at Shanghai Ocean University last 20-24 April. A number of partners from other WPs were also present. While there Arlene presented a paper on "Developing sustainability indicators for shrimp and tilapia aquaculture in Thailand". This is part of the SEAT research project and especially for her PhD research work. We attended a number of sessions in the conference, and also browsed some of the posters and exhibition booths. We also attended the special session organised by SEAT and ASEM, wherein both projects presented their work and gave specific examples relevant to Asia. It was a well attended session and created genuine interest from the audience who wanted to know what projects like these are doing to better the linkages between Europe and Asia re: aquaculture.

SOU President Prof Yingjie Pan, Dr Liu Liping (SEAT-SOU PI), Dr Kriengkrai after SEAT breakfast meeting

After AFAF, the SEAT-SOU China conducted the State of the System Workshop in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province on 27 April. SEAT-KU and SEAT-CTU (Vietnam) joined the China team during 25-30 April and assisted and observed the pre-workshop, actual workshop and post-workshop activities. It was a great learning experience for us so we can have orientation on how to conduct our in-country SOS workshops this May.

A couple of days later were spent with PhD Stirling group for initial refinement of database info and analysis and to prepare for the PhD Stirling Workshop in May in Thailand.

Locally, in Thailand, the SEAT-KU field team were also busy preparing for the field work for WP5 & 8. Led by Ms Wanwichanee, the team were able to contact respondents and key informants for the WP5 livelihoods surveys and WP8 ethical framework interviews. Since 26 April, the field team together with a researcher each from WP5 and WP8  have been to Nakhon Pathom, Chachoengsao and Chanthaburi to meet with key informants and conduct focus group discussions related to each work package. Two field staff per WP (Mink & Fonn for WP5, Vi & Tong for WP8) are assigned to assist in translation and related field work.

Meanwhile, another staff in the office (Deaw) backstops for contacting and confirming meetings with respondents for the above field work. At the same time, he assists Dr Key and Ms Arlene in the logistical preparations for SOS workshop, mainly getting confirmations from invited participants. Other work related to preparation of SOS are being handled by this three due to lack of staff as they are in the field.

WP7 with 2 researchers from WUR is continuing, assisted by another Thai RA, Ms Jugk. They left today to the field site for 7 days continuous monitoring.

Another staff has been designated to conduct more work related to wholesale markets as there is really no documentation on this. The agency mandated to collect information on this has been contacted but theyu do not have any information to give, and even requested us to provide any info we gathered from the field to them for their records.

Thailand again has a long weekend holiday, from tomorrow until Tuesday. This is good for our field staff to have a rest after a hectic time in the field, and to have refreshment before facing the weeks ahead for the SOS workshop. However for a few of us, we will continue working despite the holiday, as there is still lots to do especially on data analysis, presentations and workshop content. And they all need to be translated into Thai.