Fisheries or aquaculture? Unravelling key determinants of livelihoods in the Brazilian semi-arid region.

In impoverished semi-arid regions in the world, reservoirs serve multiple purposes, including food provision through fisheries and aquaculture. Yet, the socio-economic benefits of promoting both activities remain unclear. We independently assessed the socio-economic benefits generated from fisheries and aquaculture, in two reservoirs in the Brazilian semi-arid region (June 2013 to June 2014). These reservoirs produced 27.75 ton of farmed tilapia over a year ( USD Purchasing Power Parities [ PPP] 88,778.73) and provided at least 16.5 ton of fish through fisheries ( USD PPP 37,557.81), based on data from four farmer associations. Our input-output model revealed that the local economy depends on both activities, which, therefore, contribute similarly to providing goods and services to different branches. Aquaculture generated much higher revenues (seven times) than fisheries, but also much higher losses (the most successful farm yielded an average income of USD PPP 592.41 monthly). Still, there were no statistical differences in income among the compared associations. Fisheries provided very but guaranteed income ( USD PPP 311.02 ± 82.94) and employed over three times as many people and contributed much more (>3 times) to food security than aquaculture. Encouraging aquaculture through specific policies while overlooking fisheries is not advisable because poor fishers would not be able to deal with unpredictable outcomes and it would put their food security at risk. However, if initial external support is provided to fishers in order to buffer large losses, aquaculture could represent a way out of poverty by generating an opportunity for larger gains, as long as potential negative ecological impacts of aquaculture are accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]