Farmers need knowledge to meet fish production sufficiency target

The knowledge gap on how imported marine fishes such as croaker, mackerel and hake could be produced has become apparent as the country moves towards achieving its 67 percent production sufficiency target.

These imported fishes are in very high demand, especially at the high-end market in Nigeria. Some consumers therefore expressed concern on possible shortages in the supply of these species to meet the huge demand as the country reduces importation by 25 percent every year, for the next four years, starting this year.

BusinessDay investigations have revealed that more than 50 percent of fish farmers have no knowledge of how these marine fishes, which hitherto have been imported, could be cultured domestically. They earnestly hope that more consumers would accept catfish, tilapia, obokun, eja Osan, and common carp, which are produced through fish farming and captured in the country when the imported species became very scarce.

But Gbola Akande, researcher/fish technologist at the Nigeria Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR), however, said in an interview that croaker, which is one of the imported fish species, could be found in Nigeria’s waters as well as mackerel, though the former is not in large quantities. He said all the imported marine fishes could be produced in Nigeria through mariculture, which is the cultivation of fish with marine water. “Though we have not done this research, the fact that we have been able to cultivate shrimps, a marine animal through mariculture in Nigeria, shows clearly that it is possible to cultivate these marine fishes using the same process,” Akande said.

This mariculture entails simulating the same environment with which certain fish species or other marine animals are cultured in Europe, America and Asia, in the country’s marine waters so the imported fish can also grow within the country.

According to Lanre Talabi, another scientist, Nigeria has the best croaker in the world but just that attempts have not been made to cultivate them in large quantities. To buttress the fact that fish produced in other countries could be produced in the country, he said “Asian catfish – Pangasius is a farmed fish, we have been able to produce it on our farm in Ilaro, Ogun State, and it has been doing very well.”

But issues of infrastructural challenges have also come to the fore. Bolaji Dania, fish farmer and president of the Lagos Commercial Agriculture Development Association (CADA), expressed concern that even if these marine fishes could be cultivated within the country, the costs may be too high for individual farmers to undertake.

Akande of NIOMR, however, said that stakeholders should not conclude yet that local production of marine fishes, which hitherto have been imported, would be too expensive to produce in spite of the country’s infrastructural challenges.

Ebinimi Ansa, an aquaculture specialist and fellow, African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), said she and her team had carried out preliminary research, ascertained that these imported marine fishes could be cultured in Nigeria and submitted a proposal to one of the state governments to support the full research and test running of large-scale production of croaker and some other imported marine fishes within the country, but still await approval.

According to an anonymous source, simulating environmental conditions of another continent coupled with problems of climatic change would involve very huge costs, which would be too expensive for private individuals to undertake without government support.

Akinwunmi Adesina, minister of agriculture and rural development, recently reeling out government support to the sector, said: “We are seriously pursuing the revamping of all the Fishing Terminals in the country, with a view to providing common services. We expect that within four years, we will add an additional 1 million metric tons of fish to our domestic production and reach 67 percent self sufficiency.”

OLUYINKA ALAWODE