The five training manuals on Simple methods for aquaculture and the Handbook on small-scale freshwater fish farming presented in this CD-ROM have been produced by the Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service of the Fishery Resources Division, FAO Fisheries Department. These manuals are written in simple language and f ocus on the practical aspects of semi-intensive fish culture in fresh waters, from site selection and fish farm construction to the raising, final harvesting and marketing of the fish.

This is the 36th of a series of Working Papers prepared for the Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative (PPLPI). The purpose of these papers is to explore issues related to livestock development in the context of poverty alleviation. In order to reduce poverty we must first describe, explain and predict its spatial distribution over large areas with as high a level of local accuracy as possible. Poverty maps are traditionally produced by exploiting links between census (wide area) and survey (smaller area coverage) data.

This is the twenty-third issue of the above publication, a comprehensive and detailed compilation of statistics on farming, livestock, fishery, forestry and nutrition in Asia-Pacific countries for the decade 1995-2005. Statistics are listed separately for developing countries (including transition economies) and developed countries in the region. The publication uses mostly FAO statistics based on information provided by member countries. Also included is a section on country profiles.