The Government of France recognized the potential of fish culture to help improve the level of nutrition in its former African colonies in the early 1950's. As in other countries, technical assistance was furnished to the Central African Empire, and an ambitious fish culture extension programme was established to imptove the well-being of the people by providing more protein for consumption, as well as creating new investment and job opportunities.
Progress of this early programme reached a peak about 1959 (Centre Technique Forestier Tropicale, 1972), and a decline in interest occurred coinciding with the reduction of French bilateral aid and the withdrawal of foreign technical assistance. Following independence in 1960 the Central African Government requested United Nations assistance in fish culture. Such assistance was granted and began in 1967, continuing until the present time. Very recently, in 1974, further aid in fish culture extension was begun by the United States Peace Corps.
Thus, at the present time two agencies are furnishing assistance in fish culture in the CAR:
This paper will trace the development of fish farming in the Central African Republic from the era of colonial assistance through the present with a discussion, on extension methods used by the present United Nations project and future possibilities.
Before going further it would be appropriate to put African fish culture in perspective with fish culture on a world-wide basis. It should be noted that private fish farming in Africa differs greatly from fish farming in other parts of the world. There is little tradition of animal husbandry in Africa; thus, fish pond management is very relaxed involving little investment of time or money and a very limited use of fertilizers and feeds. The numerous small one-are (100 m2) ponds found in Africa are difficult to compare with the scale of fish farming in Asia where a private farmer may raise fish in ponds several hectares in area. Ponds in Africa are often built in low areas and many depend entirely upon ground water for their water supply; often such ponds are not entirely drainable and must be drained by hand labour using buckets. Very few private ponds have drainage systems of monks or drain pipes. As yet, no specialized trades such as private fingerling production farms have developed in African fish culture as in Asia, and fish culture on a commercial scale has only barely begun.
