History of AARM

The AARM Field of Study was formally established in 1981 as the Aquaculture Technology Field of Study (FoS) under Agriculture and Food Engineering Division. At the early part of its development, AARM emphasized and developed into an internationally recognized center of excellence in the education and research on small-scale aquaculture.

Since the mid-90s, its scope widened to include a specialization on inland aquatic resources management. In the late 90s, stemming from its research work in coastal aquaculture, it became the host field of study for the Integrated Tropical Coastal Zone Management, an interdisciplinary area of specialization between the two schools of AIT: School of Environment Resources and Development and School of Engineering and Technology. In 1996, the Agricultural Systems and Aquaculture fields of study were combined to form a single academic unit, the Agricultural and Aquatic Systems Program (AASP). In the fourth quarter of 1997, the Aquaculture field of study was renamed as Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management (AARM) to reflect a broader, systems-based approach to development. The link between AARM and Agricultural Systems was broken when the latter joined with Agricultural Engineering.

AARM was unique among the FoS at AIT in the strength of its outreach activities during the last two decades of the 20th century. Since 1988, AARM has been engaged in a major program of capacity building with national research, development and educational institutions in the region, mainly Cambodia, Lao PDR, Northeast Thailand and Vietnam, focusing on the development of aquaculture and aquatic resources management relevant to the rural poor. Initially supported by DFID, it has become a multi-donor program since 1993, when SIDA and DANIDA also provided support. Despite phasing out of DFID support in 1999, the Aquaculture Outreach program has continued to attract capacity development support from several European and regional organizations until 2003. In 1981 AARM started with enrolling 3 students and by 2003, there were 68 students enrolled in the AARM FoS. Its institutional partners in the region constituted in a network that AARM supported and was able to tap for collaborative research and training activities. By 2005, all donors withdrew the support for aquaculture and the scholarships dedicated to AARM field of study was started to decline.

In 2015 the AARM research focus was revamped with more emphasis on sustainable intensification of technologies, and the curriculum was voluntarily updated to reflect the emerging needs of the aquaculture sector in Asia from where almost 90% of the world’s aquaculture production originates. The theme of Sustainable Asian Aquaculture was introduced with a view to provide more opportunities for students to understand and apply the concepts of environment-friendly aquaculture for more efficient management of production and to realize better quality and food safety from aquaculture systems.