October 17, 2014

Fish farming may help solve serious food shortages in Africa as the region deals with falling fish stocks in rivers and lakes due to pollution, according to marine researchers.

It canbe an alternative source of food once traditional food sources are exhausted, saysEvangelos Papathanassiou, director of the Athens-based Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece.

Scientists from the centre are working on improving fish farming in Europe, and have been called on to do the same for the troubled region.

Kenya and Sierra Leone have also approached the EU for assistance with fisheries.

"In regard to African countries, I know there is initiative from the EU side; there were three meetings with high-level officials from the African countries and the EU, (concerning) research and innovation for food security," said Papathanassiou.

Thecentre has dispatched researchers to Kenya's Lake Victoria, where fish stocks have been dropping, to set up a pilot project.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 214 million people in sub-Saharan Africa face food crisis as the continent is making slow progress in achieving international hunger-reduction targets.