Monitoring and Evaluation Report of our Farm Program — July 2025
- Haven King-Nobles
- 11 hours ago
- 3 min read
Summary
To improve our strategic and programmatic decision-making, we implemented a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan within our farm program—the Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture (ARA). This post summarizes the results from our recent ARA M&E report, covering January to June 2025.
Below you'll find the key findings from our latest evaluation. You can access the complete report here.
About the Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture
The ARA represents Fish Welfare Initiative’s primary direct implementation effort, accounting for approximately 20% of FWI’s total annual budget. The remaining resources are primarily allocated to research and development (R&D) and exploratory programs.
Farmers typically enroll in the ARA to reduce disease prevalence and mortality rates. Participating farms engage with our program through:
Regular Farm Visits: We visit each farm every 1–4 weeks to observe farm conditions, measure water quality, and provide corrective actions when issues arise.
Stocking Density Cap Commitment: Participating farms commit to maintaining stocking densities within predefined limits.
See the ARA’s detailed theory of change here.
Currently, the ARA program actively engages with 186 farms, monitors approximately 9 million fishes, and has cumulatively benefited an estimated 4 million fishes.
Monitoring and Evaluation at Fish Welfare Initiative
One of our core values at FWI is evidence-based decision-making. To ensure our programs perform effectively, we've implemented an M&E plan for the ARA, which may be found here.
We recently concluded an internal M&E review covering the first half of 2025. Key results are presented below. Going forward, we plan to publish these reports biannually, although we may change this.
Key Findings from our M&E Report (January–June 2025)
(Note: These findings are copied directly from our internal report and contain somewhat more technical language than typically found in our blog. For context, see the full internal report.)
Fishes Helped
Overall program performance: The ARA continues to operate effectively. The primary limitation remains the relatively low frequency of out-of-range (OOR) water quality measurements, currently at just 8% (though note: even though it’s a bad thing for our program to detect few OOR instances, it is a good thing for fish welfare).
Impact efficiency: Around 23% of identified and addressed water quality issues resulted in measurable fish welfare improvements. While only 8% of all measurements are out-of-range, nearly 23% of the issues we detect and act upon lead to measurable improvements in fish welfare. This suggests that increasing the number of OOR detections could significantly enhance program impact.
Stocking density impact: Stocking density reductions account for only 3% of the total fishes helped in 2025. Given this low figure, we will closely monitor and reconsider the value of maintaining related systems by the year's end.
Impact by life stage: Fishes at breeding and rearing stages represent nearly double the number helped compared to grow-out stage fishes, reflecting higher stocking densities in early life stages.
Cost-effectiveness: Currently, the ARA program has a cost-effectiveness of approximately 11 fishes per dollar, compared to our organizational average of 1.5 fishes per dollar. Both figures are improvements over the end of 2024. However, caution is advised in interpreting these results, as the remaining half-year may affect these metrics significantly.
Active farm types: The following is a breakdown of the life stages of the farms active in the ARA:
Active ponds: | 185 | |
|---|---|---|
Nursery: | 2 | 1% |
Rearing: | 15 | 8% |
Breed-out: | 49 | 26% |
Grow-out: | 119 | 64% |
Harvest-Based Stocking Density Monitoring
Accuracy of farmer reporting: Most farms (76%) accurately report their stocking densities. However, 12% tend to over-report, and another 12% under-report.
Key Numbers and Pond Characteristics (as of July 17, 2025)
Farm enrollment: 235 farms enrolled, with 186 active and 154 currently stocked with fishes. In total, approximately 9.2 million fishes are currently under ARA monitoring.
New ponds (January–June 2025): 58 new ponds added, often with farmers enrolling multiple ponds.
Program drop-outs: 7 farms dropped out during this period, with diverse reasons largely unrelated to ARA’s performance.
Water quality issues: Only 34% of active ponds experienced water quality problems in the past six months, with the majority of these (79%) encountering OOR conditions on just a single day.
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