Zambia wants durable and lasting solutions to the perennial shortage of fish to meet export needs and challenges experts to innovate to plug the deficit gap.
Key among some of the recurring challenges to the growth of the sector is the scarcity of quality and affordable fish feed, the inadequate extension services and the adverse environmental effects dwarfing the fish industry.
Estimates by the country’s aquaculture sector shows that Zambia’s annual fish deficit averages 87,000 metric tons. The country’s production capacity is in excess of 100,000 metric tons (mt), with about 85,000mt from capture fisheries while the aquaculture sector, currently is in its infancy, and contributes around 30,000mt.
The deficiency has prompted the Government to rely on imports of various fish varieties from among other countries, China, which has irked the Government with an urgent call for review through the adoption of new technologies of breeding the product.
The idea should in turn be shared with all small scale farmers and non-state actors in the countryside to bolster the fish commodity production in the country and ensure suitability and ultimately avert hunger.
Fisheries and Livestock Minister Makozo Chikote, is cited by the Government’s agriculture News Agency-NAIS- as urging experts in the fisheries sector to devise lasting and durable solutions to mitigate the challenges buffeting the fish industry.
Addressing a Fisheries and Aquaculture Conference held in Lusaka, Minister Chikote lamented the low availability of quality fingerlings which has affected the growth of the sector as many farmers in aquaculture were grappling to overcome.
But the United Nations notes that Zambia’s concerns over the insufficient fingerlings and other challenges were not insurmountable as there were many science interventions in fresh water aquaculture ecosystems that need individual and collective attention to reverse the situation.
And Food and agriculture (FAO) Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture Professor Manuel Barange is cited by NAIS noting that although Zambia leads aquaculture production in the sub-Saharan region, there is need to enhance and actualise production to meet demand at local and foreign markets.
Last July, minister Chikote told FRA in an interview stressed teh need for Zambia to innovate, maximize its water bodies and strive to actualize its potential and become Africa’s net exporter of fish related products to ensure sustained food security.
The narrative that Zambia remains one of the continent’s fish deficient countries and is dependent on imports of fish from among other countries, China should be reviewed with the inception and adoption of new technologies of breeding the product which should be shared with all small scale farmers and non-state actors in the countryside to bolster commodity production and ensure suitability to avert hunger.
The fish sector remains under developed and unable to contribute to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) hence the need to maximise and induce new technology in local water bodies to reverse the deficit.
Giving an impression of the innovation by various fish farmers during the 94th Agriculture and Commercial show in Lusaka minister Chikote while being impressed with the efforts to seek new frontiers the innovation needs to be extended and shared with rural based fish farmers to change the deficiency narrative and cut down on Post Harvest Losses.
“We have a test to pass on the technology to the rural small scale farmers and increase food security but we need to work with all sector players to improve fish stocks while seeking to improve on the needs of meeting demand for the livestock.”
He called for the inclusion of women and children on fish farming who are often excluded in fish farming camps while calling for a stop in bad fishing practices.
“I am impressed with what I have seen among various exhibitors in the fisheries sector but the innovation I saw has not been passed on to the rural based small scale farmers who also need the new technologies,” he said.
Zambia remains shy of exhibiting its potential and maximizes revenue from exports of fish, a call by the Government to re-look at available opportunities for sustainability.
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the European Union and the Indian Ocean Commission note that despite the possible and significant contributions to economic growth by the fish industry, the sector needs innovation to attract national and global policies to bolster growth.
COMESA assistant Secretary General-programmes Dr. Kipyego Cheluget notes that despite the fisheries sector being one of the fastest-growing industries with the fish and fish products being one of the most widely traded food commodities because of their nutritional and economic wellbeing of people, the role of small scale fisheries are often ignored.
“Despite the significant importance of fisheries as a sector, especially the small scale and potential to contribute to; poverty alleviation, a large number of small scale fisheries in the EA,SA and IO region are not in a good state, “he said in Lusaka in May during the opening of the steering committee meeting of the ECOFISH programme on sustainable development of fisheries in Eastern, Southern and Indian Ocean regions.
There is a need for proper implementation of sustainable development of fisheries through the ECOFISH programme to help take stock of the fisheries resources while protecting them from overfishing and illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing among others.
EU Head of Cooperation, Milco Van Gool observed that there has been an increase in illegal fishing activities in most of the fish resources in the EA, SA and IO regions hence the need to regulate through good management.
Devising and adopting a single global framework and aligning a common set of values and objectives for a sustainable fisheries industry was the best solution.
“It is essential that our actions to operate in synergy and deliver outputs and carryout joint surveillance patrols will enhance the fisheries sector in our regions, “said Mr. Gool.
Indian Ocean Commission Secretary General, Velayodoum Marimoutou commended EA, SA and IO member states for their unwavering protection of the fisheries resources.
There is a need, he noted, for countries to devise innovative ways of achieving sustainable management of fisheries resources.
The lack of expertise in decision making to develop the fishing sector should be addressed by improving data and scientific information on World’s fishing catches, Marimoutou said.
The ECOFISH programme is a 28 million Euros European Union sponsored initiative intended to promote equitable economic growth of sustainable fisheries in EA, SA and IO regions.
