July 5, 2006

Fish farming expert points out factors hampering aquaculture in Nigeria

Nigeria's aquaculture industry is hampered by lack of research on culturable fish and inadequate production of fingerlings, Dr Lanre Ogunshina, the country's expert on fish farming told the media last Friday (Jun 30).

Lack of government funding to research institutes and non-existent collaboration among research institutions and farmers have posed major problems for fish producers. 

Although the local acquaculture industry has made some progress in recent years, there was still a lack of awareness in the fish farming industry, he said.

Ogunshina pointed out fish demand in Nigeria is about 1.5 million tonnes a year but the country produces only 500 ,000 tonnes annually.

The balance 1 million tonnes costs the country an estimated NGN50 billion (US$390 million) a year.

Moreover, currently available aquafeeds are costly and present little nutrition value for fishes, he said.

Ogunshina said there is also a lack of equipment for the production of aquafeeds, and asked the government to establish feed factories in Nigeria.

Ogunshina also urged the government to formulate a guideline and establish a regulatory body to monitor the country's aquaculture production. The government could also encourage people to go into the fish feeds industry by dangling incentives, he said.

The fish farming expert also urged the government to encourage multinational corporations to go into feeds production.

Lastly, Dr. Ogunshina praised the government for providing subsidies to support farmers this year.