Africa-Press – Namibia. EGYPT’S AQUACULTURE industry (fish farming) is the largest in Africa. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (2015), it accounted for about 79% of the country’s fish needs and had a market value of about 2,2 billion US dollars.
In the 1930s, the government opened two research farms that focused on common carp – purely for research purposes. However, with an increased demand for fish and diminishing fish catches, the government built modernised hatcheries, grow-out facilities, and fry stations in the late 1970s. This saw an increase in aquaculture production from 17 000 tonnes to 45 000 tonnes by the early 1980s.
How is the state spearheading the development of the sector? The Egyptian government focused on taking aquaculture to the people. It was done carefully to include both the unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled labour to increase both employment and nutritional intake. The government encouraged involvement in the sector by providing about 58 800 hectares of land for aquaculture purposes.
It focused on people with land and those who wanted to lease land from the government for traditional fish farms. This kind of fish farm is primarily run by families and is passed on from generation to generation. It is estimated that this group employs about 40 000+ people and makes up about 80% of Egypt’s aquaculture production.
A second group includes those who work in hatcheries, cage farms, and intensive pond culture. They can be trained technicians or labourers and work on private farms for a wage. The third group is government employees. They are the driving force in the aquaculture industry because they run the hatcheries, fry collection stations, juvenile production facilities, research and grow-out government farms. This group includes extension and training directorates that are in charge of transferring information to farmers either through publishing extension papers or providing free aquaculture training courses.
SOUTHERN POTENTIAL
What can Namibia learn from Egypt’s state-directed aquaculture industry? Our aquaculture sector is still in its infancy. The government remains the leading producer through its demonstration farms, while the private sector is invisible. As the custodian of both marine and inland fisheries, the fisheries ministry has failed to steer this sector forward.
The ministry already has an inland aquaculture centre in addition to the underutilised Fonteintjies community fish farm in the south. Among others, the south also has two of the biggest dams (Neckartal and Hardap) in the country. If efficiently used, the south could feed the whole country but only if, like in Egypt, the locals are given land to either lease or own (for example, around the Neckartal Dam).
However, the ministry first needs well-established research centres. Research will help find new breeds of fish with fast growth and high production. Another problem the Egyptian government tackled was the manufacturing of extruded fish feed. Namibia’s aquaculture sector will remain in its infant stage as long as we keep importing fish feed.
KEY FACTORS
The success of Egypt’s aquaculture sector depended on having experts in different fields such as fish breeding, fish parasites, diseases, feed manufacturing, etc, as part of the government structure to guide fish farmers.
It also supported independent researchers and experts who formed businesses to provide services to private fish farmers. Developing the aquaculture sector is crucial in the face of climate change, increased fish piracy, and ever more fishing fleets, which are depleting fish resources.
Africa is characterised as the continent most vulnerable to climate change. We need to pay increasing attention to drought-resistant food products, and more importantly, fish farming. There is also a need to increase research on fish and fisheries products.
Lastly, with the world population expected to be more than 10 billion by 2050, the untapped potential of Africa’s extensive inland waterways and coastlines, creates a significant opportunity for aquaculture to meet the rising demand for fish protein from a growing and rapidly urbanising consumer population.
* Iyaloo Dominicus is a third-year fisheries and aquatic sciences student at Unam.
* Daniel Hafeni is an MSc candidate at the University of Limpopo and an intern at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources.
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