Knowledge and innovation relationships in the shrimp industry in Thailand and Mexico

Abstract

Experts, government officials, and industry leaders concerned about the sustainability of shrimp aquaculture believe they know what farmers need to know and should be doing. They have framed sustainability as a technical problem that, at the farm level, is to be solved by better shrimp and management of ponds and businesses. Codes of conduct, standards, and regulations are expected to bring deviant practices into line. Shrimp farmers are often cornered in a challenging game of knowledge in which their livelihoods are at stake. In the commodity chain there are multiple relations with both suppliers and buyers, not all of which are trustworthy. The social networks shrimp farmers belong to are crucial for sifting out misinformation and multiplying insights from personal experience in learning by doing. Successful farmers become part of a learning culture through seminars, workshops, and clubs in which knowledge and practices are continually re-evaluated. The combination of vertical and horizontal relationships creates a set of alternative arenas that together are critical to bridging knowledge and action gaps for shrimp farmers. Government and industry initiatives for improving links between knowledge and practice for sustainability have largely succeeded when incentives are aligned: shrimp grow better in healthy environments, and using fewer resources means higher profits.

Boundary work for sustainable development: Natural resource management at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

“…Such a perspective would emphasize that context matters, but also that context is to some extent chosen by relevant actors. It would stress that both the producers and users of knowledge therefore have a responsibility to reflect on the political implications of the contexts in which they choose to interact with one another (8,17,51).…”

Resource-based view of sustainability engagement

“…The LA21 network holds the valuable collective knowledge of LA21 and its implementation, generated and shared through continued member interactions (Dholakia et al, 2004;Lebel et al, 2009;Nambisan and Baron, 2009;Bos et al, 2013;Fazey et al, 2014).…”

Factors Driving Aquaculture Technology Adoption

“…Farmers can adopt such technologies in a stepwise manner and observe the benefits of growth, survival, and feeding efficiencies. Adoption of several types of aerators (long‐arm and spiral) in the Asian shrimp industry also followed this sort of sequential trial adoption pattern in which model demonstration ponds in specific regions acted as platforms for trial and observation (Lebel et al ).…”

“…Shrimp farmers in Thailand and Mexico were found to develop a learning culture through the development of trustworthy sources of information involving multiple supply chain members leading to a continual reevaluation of understanding of the importance of consumer safety and ecological sustainability (Lebel et al ). Similarly, adoption of resource‐efficient white‐legged shrimp, their domestication, and reduction in effluent discharges were a result of coordinated learning process within the Thai shrimp industry (Lebel et al ).…”