FG Inaugurates Committee On New Fish Varieties

New varieties of high yielding fish breeds will soon be introduced to fish farmers and the general public, a statement said, quoting the Chairman, National Varieties Release Committee (NVRC), Chief Oladosu Awoyemi.

The statement was signed by Dr Sunday Aladele, the acting Registrar of the National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), Ibadan, and made available to newsmen in Lagos recently.

Awoyemi was quoted as saying this while inaugurating a six-man technical sub-committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Fisheries.

According to the statement, he said that technical sub-committees already existed for crops and livestock adding that the new fisheries technical sub-committee would operate in similar fashion.

Awoyemi said in the statement that the idea behind the sub-committees was for farmers to get better grade of high yielding varieties of crops, livestock and fisheries.

“I hope setting up this sub-committee will make it possible for new fish varieties to be brought into the Nigerian market soon.

“Almost every household eats fish. I am surprised that this sub-committee had not come up till now; but it is never too late,’’ the statement quoted the chairman as saying.

It said that the sub-committee’s importance was underlined by the fact that fish was consumed much more in Nigeria than beef and chicken.

It said the basic work of the sub-committee was to register and approve new varieties of fishes as well as develop a database for existing varieties.