Review of public sector support for aquaculture in Africa

The objective of this study is to review public sector support for aquaculture in Africa. 'Public Sector Support' in this context, refers to assistance given directly or indirectly by government or through national projects undertaken within bilateral cooperation, or regional projects undertaken within multilateral co-operation. The review is based on published materials on aquaculture practices in ten African countries selected according to the broad geographic regions of the continent. The countries are Cameroon and Central African Republic (Central); Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania (East); Malawi and Zambia (Southern) and Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Nigeria (West). The history of aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa is relatively recent compared to that of Asia. However, some form of aquaculture has been practised in many African countries for 40 years or more. Dttring the 1960s, aquaculture development almost came to a standstill, with significant declines in many of the countries. Most ponds were abandoned because of poor returns, lack of stocking materials and drought among other reasons. In the last 50 years or so, several attempts have been made to introduce aquaculture in Africa with government and donor support. According to Coche et al. (1994) it was not until the late 1960s that aquaculture started to develop again in Africa following increased technical and financial assistance from multilateral and bilateral donors amounting to about US$500 million over a twenty-year period. In spite of these attempts, no African country is included in the top 14 aquaculture producing countries in the world. Total aquaculture production 'in Africa rose from less than 40,000 tonnes in 1984 to over 100,000 tonnes in 1996. The total production of the ten countries constitutes between 14 and 31% (average 22%) of Africa's production. The most important country in the study in terms of aquaculture production is Nigeria. Many countries, includip.,:: those with significant aquaculture production or potential, do provide support services to the sector. These services may include research and development, training and extension, creating enabling conditions through policy and legislation, credit and post harvest handling including marketing. Extension services ill aquaculture aim at providing eXlstmg knowledge and applying the appropriate technology to the sector, as well as identifying sources of recommended inputs and provision of training and advice to aquaculturists. In some of the countries reviewed there is a distinction between aquaculture and fisheries extension (e.g.Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire), although the same extension agents may also perform other duties (e.g Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria). In all the countries reviewed, extension services suffer from inadequate mobility, lack of funds, equipment and other extension materials. The lack of effective aquaculture extension in Ghana, for eaxrnple, is being addressed through the Unified Agricultural Extension System (UAES) in which frontline staff of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture are expected to provide extension services to all sectors of agriculture including aquaculture. This is intended to increase the number of extension outreach staff available for aquaculture development and also to help integrate fish farming into existing farming systems. Consequently, aquaculture could get less attention in preference to more traditional agricultural activities under the unified agriculture extension system.