Preparation of this document.


Recognizing the increasing importance of the use of aquatic macrophytes as feed in small-scale aquaculture, the global review on this topic was undertaken as a part of the regular work programme of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) by the Aquaculture Management and Conservation Service ‘Study and analysis of feed and nutrients (including fertilizers) for sustainable aquaculture development’.

This was carried out under the programme entity ‘Monitoring, Management and Conservation of Resources for Aquaculture Development’.
The manuscript was edited for technical content by Michael B. New. For consistency and conformity, scientific and English common names of fish species were used from FishBase (www.fishbase.org/home.htm). Most of the photographs in the manuscripts were provided by the first author. Where this is not the case, due acknowledgements are made to the contributor(s) or the source(s).


Special thanks are due to Dr Albert G.J. Tacon (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain), Dr M.A.B. Habib (Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh), Md. Ghulam Kibria (Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Namibia) and Dr Khondker Moniruzzaman (University of Dhaka, Bangladesh) who kindly provided papers and information. The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh is acknowledged for kindly providing the reports of the Duckweed Research Project.
We acknowledge Ms Tina Farmer and Ms Francoise Schatto for their assistance in quality control and FAO house style and Mr Juan Carlos Trabucco for layout design. The publishing and distribution of the document were undertaken by FAO, Rome.
Mr Jiansan Jia, Service Chief, and Dr Rohana P. Subasinghe, Senior Fishery Resources Officer (Aquaculture), Aquaculture Management and Conservation Service of the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department are also gratefully acknowledged for their support.