All over Africa, increasing expectations are being placed on aquaculture. Capture fish output figures have declined significantly, at a time when population figures are rising, with the resultant increase in protein requirements. Beef production has not made progress, due to difficulties with provision of grazing land. Poultry production has made little progress in spite of major policy decisions, especially in West Africa. Aquaculture appears to have the capacity to meet expectations. But some changes need to be made, and species diversification appears to be one of them.
Tilapia and catfish are the main species cultivated in various African countries. Usually one specie is preferred in a nation to another. Nigeria is essentially a catfish nation, with at least 80% of farmers engaged in farming catfish, whilst tilapia is the preferred specie. The story is a little complicated in Ghana, because until about 2020 tilapia was the main cultivated. Interestingly, about 90% of national output was contributed by some ten farms located along the Volta Lake. The fast currents of the Lake were providing the farmers with a good production environment. Catfish production, which was practiced many years ago, has been making a decent recovery, and there are signs that it will rival tilapia in a few years.
The one significant thing of note is the fact that aquaculture production figures are below the expectations of African policy makers. Africa is spending substantial amounts on fish imports, and this trend needs to be broken. Related to this is the fact that as a food security issue, fish farmers need to produce affordable fish. This is certainly not the case today, and one of the main reasons, at least from the fish farmer’s perspective, is the cost of fish feed. The African fish farmer spends about 70% of his budget on feed. The main reasons for this situation are the high cost of the main ingredients, maize and soya meal. In addition to being the carbohydrate source for livestock farmers, maize is also the main human food source in Africa, and also an industrial raw material. And soya meal is imported mainly from the US and Argentina, and with Africa’s fragile currencies this is no easy task.
Most farmers are unable to afford this, and try to get round the problem by using combinations of palm kernel cake, cotton seed cake, wheat bran and other agro byproducts. Without the requisite technical and sanitary facilities, the results are obviously not satisfactory.
In recent years, the concept of species diversification has gained traction. Mostly, especially in Nigeria, this has involved the promotion of exotic species like pangasius, brahma, pacu, freshwater brahma and common carp. Indeed, some experts are arguing that cultivation of these species involve less feed and other costs. Some farmers are cultivating these species, and there are expectations that they will become part of the aquaculture ecosystem in the near future. But some experts view this trend with caution.
One group believes that introduction of any exotic species into a new environment requires some precautions to ensure that it does not have any negative impact on the new environment. ‘That is the reason why’, one expert said, ‘we have quarantine units at entry points in most countries, so that new plant or animal species can be kept for testing to ensure that they pose no threat to the new environment, before cultivation is allowed’. And according to another expert, ‘the expectation that the introduction of exotic species will produce profits in the short term is quite optimistic. Catfish has been part of the Nigerian cuisine for many years. Even tilapia, after many years of its introduction, is still not a major part of our cuisine. Pangasius and other species may become accepted part of our diet after some time’.
Another angle to the discussion on species diversification is the fact that quite a number of local species have unexplored potential. It has been suggested that research institutions and universities should join hands to start projects to develop these species. The development costs would ultimately be cheaper.
One of the main risks of producing foreign species under capture conditions is their escape into rivers, lakes and other water bodies. Apart from the great difficulty of keeping them safe in fish farms, the recent floods experienced in West Africa swept across numerous cages and ponds, and foreign fish species should be all over the place by now. This risk is further increased when one considers the fact that West African borders are porous, to say the least, so all manner of goods and services flow through. Currently, about half of the fingerlings used by Ghanaian fish farmers are illegally but freely imported from Nigeria. There is the real risk, then, of pangasius, pacu, common carp and other species finding their way across West Africa, exposing water bodies to various risks.
There are many local fish species with good potential for deployment in aquaculture, and African aquaculture experts have done some work which indicate good prospects. But most of these projects require funding to complete investigations.
Presently, there seems to be a general acceptance of the need to increase aquaculture production to plug the wide gap between fish supply and demand. Aquaculture is the best means of providing sufficient protein for the increasing numbers of Africans. Clearly, the production of foreign species with virtually no restrictions is being done with the view to increasing output figures, and to increase profitability for the fish farmer. But the risks are very real. They could manifest much sooner than later.
In Ghana tilapia farmers have been calling for a relaxation of the regulations which restrict farming of tilapia to only the Akosombo species. They felt that other species would cost less to cultivate, and yield better harvests. Over the last few years, some foreign species which have entered the industry illegally, with negative impacts on fish farming. Among the negative impacts was the ISKN virus attack which devastated farms along the Volta Lake from 2018. The industry is yet to fully recover from the effects of that attack.
In response to the appeals from the industry, the regulators have indicated that changes are on the way. It seems likely that the regulations will be relaxed, but measures will be put in place to protect the industry and ecosystem from possible negative effects.
Some fish diseases are very difficult to deal with, especially when they are introduced from foreign lands. Whilst it is important that fish farmers maximize profit, adequate steps must be taken to ensure that the customer, our waterways and our entire ecosystem are protected as we introduce new species. There are many local species with great potential. They must be explored.