Session IX-13: Final harvests

Time frame: Variable for each trainee. Entire process should occur over approximately three to four days.

Objectives:

· Provide opportunity for each trainee to carry out all steps of a complete harvest in his/her pond;

· Provide opportunity for trainees to collect data and learn the results of their efforts as fish farmers;

· Provide fish for marketing and for the fish fry.

Overview: Trainees stocked their ponds and managed them throughout the training program. They now have an opportunity to complete their management cycles by completing harvesting their ponds. They will be able to learn the results of their efforts, assess their success as fish farmers and evaluate their own management techniques and decisions. The following is not a session design, but is a set of trainer notes.

1. Trainees should be notified of the date on which final harvests may begin, and the date by which they should be completed. In determining these dates, staff should keep in mind that trainees should be able to keep the fish in their ponds for as long as possible, but harvests must be also be completed early enough to allow time for writing and evaluating final reports.

2. Staff members should select one or two trainees with good organizational abilities to coordinate the final harvests. One trainer should also be designated as the staff supervisor of this activity. This trainer should work closely with the trainee coordinator, and it is the trainee coordinator who should actually communicate with the group.

3. Trainees may work in teams for the final harvests in terms of helping each other with the labor and sharing equipment, but each trainee is responsible for his/her own harvest, for all planning, all decisions, and for collecting all data.

4. The responsibilities of the trainer coordinator(s) include the following:

· Setting the harvest schedule for all trainees. It is his/her decision whether or not trainees may sign up for certain time slots whether times will be assigned (though special needs of trainees who are serving as coordinators on other projects, who have ponds or fish that pose unique harvesting problems, etc. should be taken into account).

· Organizing the teams. Again, it is up to the coordinator(s) to either assign them or allow trainees to have input.

· Explaining any rules, guidelines, limitations, etc. regarding how teams work together, how equipment is to be shared, etc. This includes rules set by the staff and rules set by the coordinator(s).

· Very important: Keeping track of all fish movements and inventory of storage ponds. At the end of the harvests, the coordinator(s) must provide the trainer in charge with a detailed, accurate account of exactly what is in each pond (i.e., numbers of fish, size range and average weights, total weights, age, species, and what pond(s) they came from). They will receive instructions from the trainer in charge regarding what is required by the staff. (See next Trainer Note).

· Working with Fish Fry and Fish Marketing coordinators to supply fish as needed for those events from the harvests.

· The trainer supervisor must provide all of the information to the coordinator(s) that they will need to do their job efficiently, and should provide support as needed. Examples of the kind of information to be provided includes:

· When harvests may begin and the date and time by which they must be completed

· Which ponds may be used as storage ponds

· What holding facilities are or are not available (if appropriate), such as holding tanks, cages, etc.

· Staff needs regarding how fish are stored; for example, staff may ask that fish be graded and stocked so that each storage pond contains only fish in a specified size range, that the fish be divided by age, that different species be stocked separately, etc.

· All staff determined rules, limitations, etc. regarding how teams may work together, use of certain equipment, availability of vehicle for transporting fish, etc.

· The first ponds to be harvested will be the ones containing fish that are to be used for the Fish Fry and the Fish Marketing project. Please see design for Fish Marketing in this chapter. See design for Fish Fry in Chapter Fourteen.