& The farming of the red seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii and related species as raw material for the hydrocolloid carrageenan rapidly spread from the Philippines in the late 1960s to Indonesia, Tanzania, and other tropical countries around the world. Although numerous studies have documented positive socioeconomic impacts for seaweed farming, factors such as diseases and distance to export markets have led to an uneven development of the industry. Using standard budgeting techniques, this study adapted production and market data from a FAO-led global review of seaweed farming to develop comparative enterprise budgets for eight farming systems in six countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, Tanzania, India, Solomon Islands, and Mexico). Although the basic technology package is the same across countries, the study revealed large differences in the economic performance of systems due to wide variations in farm prices and the scale of operations. Although seaweed farming is a suitable activity for small-scale producers, a minimum of 2,000 m of cultures lines are still necessary to ensure adequate economic returns. Greater farming plots may be needed if farm prices are well below the average farm prices paid in Indonesia and the Philippines. Policy recommendations are made to improve the economic potential of underperforming systems.

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Commercial aquaculture which, for this paper, is defined as the rearing of aquatic organisms that is profit oriented and primarily by the private sector, contributes to food security, directly by producing food fish, and indirectly by generating employment, and thus, income for the purchase of food. In addition, commercial aquaculture can be sustainable because it depends on private, rather than public funds that are usually lacking or scarce. The paper describes some enabling policies that are conducive to the promotion of commercial aquaculture. In particular it focuses on administrative and legal frameworks. The paper concludes that development of aquaculture can be enhanced by legislation specific to the sector rather than relying on general fisheries legislation; such a legislative framework (particularly for landbased aquaculture) would resemble that of agriculture. Regulations require expensive and time-consuming monitoring and enforcement; they should focus on environmental protection and a sustainable industry.

Policy makers in developing economies continue to promote small-scale fish culture as a means of generating stable income and alleviating malnutrition and famine problems. In some places like Rwanda, land previously established with traditional crops has been re-allocated to small-scale fish culture. While the income derived from fish farming is a powerful incentive to produce an alternative crop, the lack of information on the risk associated with returns from smallscale fish farming in Rwanda is striking. This study used the @Risk risk analysis and simulation add-in for Lotus 1-2-3 to determine the range and the probability of economic success or failure, to identify sources of risk, and to evaluate ways of minimizing risks in smallscale fish production in Rwanda. The study compared fish farming by cooperatives and by individual farmers. Small-scale fish farming showed economic potential in Rwanda when evaluated as positive income above variable costs. The event 'income above variable costs is at least zero' occurred with a 100% probability for both cooperatives' and individual farms. When evaluation was based on net returns to land and management, economic failure became a virtual certain event, occurring with 99.8% and 95.5% probabilities for cooperatives and individual farms, respectively. Although, the level of success was sensitive to higher stocking rates, and higher fish producer prices, the amount of labour used in the production-marketing