Farmers Lists Gains Of Aquaculture

The Nigeria aquaculture sector  has the capacity to generate over N100bn in foreign exchange and could provide millions of jobs if the potentials in the industry were harnessed, the Managing Director of Dickem Farm, Mr. Godwin Emakenemi has said.

Emakenemi, who made the assessment in Lagos over the weekend to a The Tide source said Nigeria currently spends over N100bn annually on the importation of frozen fish into the country.

The Dickam boss, who is a fish farmer said importing fish from other countries into the country was uneconomical because it depletes the country’s foreign deserves, especially as the product could easily be provided locally.

He said the importation of frozen fish into the country was harmful to the economy and put the estimated yearly fish demand in the country at 2.66 million as against the yearly domestic production of about 0.78 million, giving a demand – supply gap of about 1.8 million metric tonnes.

Emakenemi lamented that the country was importing over 780,000 metric tones of frozen fish yearly from Europe, Latin America and Eastern countries, adding that encouraging fish farming would not only help diversify the country’s resource base but would also complement government’s  effort aimed at achieving the MDG scheme.

According to the fish farmer, Nigeria remained the most resourceful and vibrant African nation in the aquaculture industry and currently the leading producer of cat fish in Africa.

He said the contribution of the fisheries sub-sector to the nation’s economy was significant, ranging from employment creation to the provision of raw materials for the animal feed industry.

“It is sad to note that we are still far behind in our efforts at adding value to our aquaculture products, thereby leading to artificial glut, low value of non-exportable aquaculture products”, he said.

He stressed the need to develop guidelines and policies that would create favourable climate for more investment opportunities across the aquaculture value chain and at the same time provide safeguards against environmental and social risks.

On factors militating against fish farming, he said water, light, weather and feedings of fingerlings were of great importance at the beginning. “These fishes require lots of attention and feeding at the initial stage but this becomes difficult when there is no light for pumping water.