Coastal aquaculture in Aceh was severely affected by the Asian Tsunami in December 2004. Capacity building among stakeholders was one of the key activities implemented by various agencies during the post‐tsunami aquaculture rehabilitation and subsequent development phase. The main objective was improving production efficiencies and farmer incomes. This article describes the process of implementation of the approach and crop outcomes until the end of 2009. In 2009, 1135 farmers and their 1296 ponds were ‘organized’ in 27 clusters across 84 villages of three districts to implement better management practices (BMP). Interventions reduced the prevalence of shrimp disease outbreaks significantly in participating ponds (22.45%) compared with non‐participating ponds (62.64%). Among the normal harvested ponds, though there was no significant improvement in shrimp yield but costs of shrimp production were significantly reduced by 12.1% and benefit cost ratio was significantly increased by 0.523 points in normal harvested participating ponds compared with normal harvested non‐participating ponds. Multivariable logistic regression analysis with 27 independent variables including a set of BMP showed that many factors were significantly associated with the normal harvests, improved yield and profits. The study shows that simple management improvements can reduce risks and improve economic returns.

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Rice crop is affected by different types of floods at different stages of the crop cycle. Constant efforts of researchers resulted in the development of rice varieties for anaerobic germination, flash floods and stagnant flooding by both conventional and molecular breeding approaches. Detection of QTLs for different types of floods in new genetic source (AC39416A) is needed to combat adverse effects of climate change. Present investigation was carried out to identify QTLs for flood tolerance using recombinant inbred lines derived from Indra and AC39416A. QTL mapping resulted in identification of QTLs, qAG3.1 on chromosome 3 for anaerobic germination and qSF10.1 on chromosome 10 for plant survival % under stagnant flooding. These QTLs explain 59.08 and 13.21% of phenotypic variance respectively. Two candidate genes were identified in qAG3.1 region, LOC_Os03g42130 gibberellin 20 oxidase2 and LOC_Os03g44170 glutathione S-transferase. The underlying mechanism might be the inhibition of gibberellic acid synthesis and thereby protecting seedlings from oxidative stress under anoxia condition. Genomic region of qSF10.1 revealed LOC_Os10g35020 glycosyltransferase and LOC_Os10g35050 aquaporin protein loci, which might be responsible for adaptive mechanism for plant survival % under stagnant flooding. This indicates that the new genetic resource AC39416A has an ability to adopt to different types of flood tolerance in response to environmental stress. Unveiling physiological and molecular mechanisms for flood tolerance in AC39416A using advanced omics studies would help in precise genomic selections for sustained production in flood-prone areas.

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