Category Archives: Bolivia

Yemaya highlights how changes in fish trade affect the lives and labour of women

Posted on October 3, 2015 | Leave a comment
The Boring Road Crossing fish market in Patna, India. The number of women fish vendors has declined substantially. Photo: Bibha Kumar, from Yemaya 49 p. 5.

The Boring Road Crossing fish market in Patna, India. The number of women fish vendors has declined substantially. Photo: Bibha Kumar, from Yemaya 49 p. 5.

The July 2015 issue of Yemaya (from the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers) highlights the experiences of women in fish trade and support industries.  The editor, Nilanjana Biswas, concludes that the evidence is that women are being ‘ousted from local markets’, typically ending up in more dangerous, less lucrative substandard sites.

Read the Editorial and stories.

  • Perched on the brink of survival by Modesta Medard (Tanzania)
  • Receding waters, vanishing trades by Bibha Kumar (India)
  • Banking on closure by Lorna Slade (Tanzania)
  • Guatemala’s comprehensive policy on gender equality by Ramya Rajagopalan
  • A couple of champions! by Cornelia Quist (Netherlands)
  • Profile: Fisher of the year – Anna Ramirez (Bolivia)
  • Making women matter by Nilanjana Biswas
  • Q & A Interview with Lakshmi Murthy, seaweed harvester Tamil Nadu
  • Yemaya recommends: Globefish report “Role of Women in the Seafood Industry”
  • Plus Yemaya Mama (cartoon, What’s new Webby?

Download the whole issue or any individial article at here.

Leave a comment

Posted in Bolivia, FAO, UN Women, World Bank, IFAD, UNIDO and other multilateral, Fish post-harvest, ICSF, India, Seaweed, Tamil Nadu, Tanzania

Tagged , , , , , ,

Latest ICSF Yemaya Newsletter Now Out

Posted on May 7, 2015 | Leave a comment
Tahira Shah leads a cultural rally in Hyderabad, Pakistan to celebrate World Fisheries Day on 21 November 2013. She spoke up against all forms of discrimination, based on gender, caste and religion and made other women also speak up against these. Source: Yemaya March 2015, ICSF. Photo by Mustafa Gurgaze.

Tahira Shah leads a cultural rally in Hyderabad, Pakistan to celebrate World Fisheries Day on 21 November 2013. She spoke up against all forms of discrimination, based on gender, caste and religion and made other women also speak up against these. Source: Yemaya March 2015, ICSF. Photo by Mustafa Gurgaze.

The latest issue of Yemaya, the newsletter on gender and fisheries put out three times a year by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, is full of interesting and thought-provoking articles, several centered around International Women’s Day and continuing struggles for decent lives and rights around the world.

The whole issue or individual articles may be downloaded.

Table of Contents

  1. From the Editor
  2. Long Live Women’s Day by Nilanjana Biswas
  3. Equal Work, Unequal Pay by Eduardo Ramírez Vera (see also this post on women in Chile))
  4. Milestones: Women 2000 by Ramya Rajagopalan
  5. A Right to Fish, A Fight to Live (Sunderabans) by Urvashi Sarkar
  6. What’s New Webby: The Role of Women in Fisheries (FAO, Susana Siar) by Nilanjana Biswas
  7. Profile: Farmers without borders Annie Castaldo—Shellfish farmer at the Laguna of Thau, France by Katia Frangoudes
  8. A Life of Truth and Struggle (Tahira Shah, Pakistan) by Mustafa Gurgaze
  9. Family Fish Farming, Bolivia (see also this post)
  10. Yemaya Mama (cartoon for International Women’s Day)
  11. Yemaya Recommends: Document “42 Portraits of Women Working in the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors” (Femmes de Mer 42 Portraits. Un Livre De Michèle Villemur) by Brian O’Riordan

Leave a comment

Posted in Bolivia, Chile, France, Global, ICSF, India, International Women's Day, Pakistan, West Bengal

Women-led fish farming improves life for families in Yapacani, Bolivia

Posted on March 22, 2015 | 2 comments

Picture1The Fish for Life project, initiated by experts from Canada, Brazil and Bolivia, and carried out with families in Yapacani, Bolivia, has succeeded in expanding the farming families’ diversity of food and farming options – previously based on single crop rice farming – by successfully introducing women-led fish farming.

The comprehensive development project, complete with pilot studies to prove up the technical options and then help for local farmers to develop their knowledge and skills, has generated an additional US$15,000 per year per family.  Since 2008, before the project, fish consumption has increased from 3.8 kg per year per capita to 5.6 kg per year per capita. This is an area that traditionally eats little fish, despite good water resources and available local species of fish. In the project, a small native fish, sabalo or black prochilodus (Prochilodus nigricans) was added to previous aquaculture attempts using just pacu (Colossoma macropomum).

The women have become majority members of the Yaqcapani Northern Integrated Pisciculture Association – APNI), coming from a former position in which they had little economic recognition to one of leadership in an important new economic activity. Their husbands have gone from scepticism to strong support.

This work has been supported by the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Read more about the project: Link

2 Comments

Posted in Americas, Aquaculture, Bolivia, Canada, Gender and development, IDRC, Natural resource management