4. ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES FOR MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE-BASED FISHERIES

Three kinds of organizational capabilities are assessed: (1) administration and management, (2) research and education and (3) coordination

4.1 Administrative and Management Institutions

4.1.1 Fisheries Department

The Fisheries Department is the primary institution to administer and manage fisheries. Inland waters and aquaculture are supervised by a Deputy Director and the Department is represented in each of the 10 regions by a Deputy Director or Senior Fishery Officer and his staff (Table 5). By 1995 it is planned to add 20 professionals, 45 technical Officers and 70 sub-technical Officers.

Table 5. Manning table of Officers and sub-technical Officers in the Fisheries Department as of April 1990 in total and those allocated to inland fisheries and aquaculture (Source: Mr. Asafo) Fisheries Department)

Fishery Officers and Assistant Fishery Officers are required to have B.Sc. degrees. Technical Officers are to have a West Africa School Leavers Certificate, equivalent to O-levels.

In order to establish the amount of post-graduate training in fisheries and aquaculture, a census of professional and technical Officers in each of the 10 regions was made through interviews with the regional Fishery Officers. Altogether information was gathered on 54 Officers (Table 6).

Long-term fishery training at professional Officer level has been of a general nature and nearly all of it has been abroad, for example a one-year course in fisheries management at Grimsby, England.

The mission believes that there is an urgent need for training. The most economic and most quickly realized solution to the Fisheries Department's training needs in fish farming and inland fisheries is through a training project in-country with intense short courses especially designed to address the problems of fish farming systems and fisheries common in Ghana.

Table 6. Post-graduate training (months) among Officers of the Fisheries Department.

Recommendation: The Fisheries Department should seek a technical assistance project for practical, in-country training of staff at all levels in fish farming and inland fisheries management and development, including CBF.

An outline for such a project is contained in Working Paper No.13(c).

4.1.2 Physical plant and equipment

A fundamental need for culture-based fisheries is a reliable supply of seed stock. In total, there are nearly 60 ha of government-owned fish farms (Table 7). However, of these, the FD has only 44.1 ha. The other agencies use their fish farms mainly for research (e.g., IAB, UST), or for commercial production (e.g., VRA, ICOUR).

Table 7. Government owned fish farms and their status⁶

2=operational
1=non-operational but could be made functional
0=of doubtful value to rehabilitate

⁶ Information from observations of the mission, Balarin (1988), Satia and Vincke (1988) and from the FD.

Of the FD farms, the mission is of the opinion that 3 farms totalling 15 ha are probably not worth rehabilitating. There are 5 other FD farms which are not operational, but which might be made operational. These total 10.4 ha. Even here, there is some doubt as to whether these might become operational. For example, at Nasia the water supply depends on the development of the area for irrigated rice farming. The rice project has been abandoned. Finally, there are 9.7 ha among 6 farms that are operational. Among these, some, for example, Ashiaman, Dahwenya and Afife, also have to supply the needs of fish farmers. Thus, the available capacity to support CBF is quite small. If all of the operational FD hatchery capacity were devoted to supplying CBF needs, then approximately 5 million fingerlings could be supplied each year based on an area of 3828 m2/200,000 fingerlings/yr (see Working Paper No.1). Assuming a stocking rate of 2857 fingerlings/ha to achieve an annual yield of 200 kg/ha, then about 1750 ha could be stocked once per year using all of the present capacity, but ignoring the present pond configurations.⁷

Another constraint is that the locations of the operational fish farms do not correspond to the highest densities of dams, dugouts and reservoirs. At present there are only three operational FD fish farms in Northern Ghana totalling 1.9 ha of ponds. At the rates given above, these could produce about 1 million fingerlings annually, sufficient to stock about 350 ha.

Another important aspect of fingerling production capacity is that CBF needs are seasonal. Temporary water bodies should be stocked soon after they begin to fill, say June, so that the longest growing season possible is achieved. Fortunately, there is no conflict with the needs of fish farmers who will require most seed stock in October and November in order to harvest in March and April when the marine fish supply is low and in January and February in order to harvest in July and August when the supply of freshwater fish is low.

4.1.3 Mobility

Lack of mobility is a factor which severely affects the ability of the Fisheries Department to do CBF. There is only one vehicle assigned to each regional office. In nearly all of the regions these are relatively new, 2-seat pickup trucks, but not all are 4WD. In two regions, the vehicles are old and are often off the road for repairs. Considering that these vehicles have to serve all of the needs of the regional offices, the capacity for fish seed transport is very limited.

4.1.4 Equipment for stocking by region.

Equipment for transporting fish is lacking in nearly all of the regions. Simple equipment such as plastic bags, boxes and 12 VDC aerators, or oxygen bottles could be used in place of the tank truck proposed for one region. Oxygen over fish transported in plastic bags could significantly increase fingerling transport capabilities by permitting more fingerlings to be transported per trip and per weight of water.

Seines for harvesting ponds are available, but nets to fish fingerlings are not in universal supply.

⁷ This assumes a CBF harvest of 200 kg/ha of 0.1 kg fish. Thus, there are 2000 fish/ha to harvest, but further assuming a survival rate of 70% of the fingerlings stocked, the fingerling requirement is 2856/ha.

4.1.5 Extension

With the small number of trained Officers available, and with limited personnel at lower levels, the Fisheries Department is hopelessly under-manned and under-equipped for effective extension work in CBF, let alone aquaculture and inland fisheries. Table 8 calls attention to this situation by presenting an index showing the density of extension by region. Except in Upper West, the availability of Officers is quite low. Furthermore, the present allocation does not appear to correlate well with the apparent work load as indicated by the inland water surface in each region.

Table 8. Numbers of Officers allocated to inland fisheries and aquaculture by region (A), surface area of inland waters in km² (B), and extension index (A/B).

The mission firmly believes that the only effective solution is to utilize the existing agricultural extension services for fish farming extension. In this case, the FD would provide the fish farming training for the agricultural extension agents. The FD would continue to be directly involved in extension work by providing specialized advice to fish farmers and by developing extension “messages” through applied or adaptive research, but it would be up to the agricultural extension agents to carry the “message” to the farmers.

The FD would continue to be solely responsible for fisheries extension including CBF extension.

There are no manuals for extension work other than a few recently supplied by FAO. Only one regional office is regularly receiving FAO publications on aquaculture and fisheries. Few offices receive publications from other sources although these are gratis from, for example, FAO, EEC and ICLARM.

There are no libraries of aquaculture and fishery texts at regional offices that could be made available to staff for reference and self-improvement.

Recommendation: The Fisheries Department should undertake a project to provide manuals and teaching aids for fish farming and for CBF as an integral part of its extension efforts. As part of the same project it should provide technical reference information for its field and headquarters staff

The project outline is in Working Paper No.13 (d).

4.1.6 Fishery and Aquaculture Statistics

One of the most serious impediments to the development of aquaculture, CBF and inland fisheries in Ghana is the lack of reliable information on fisheries and fish farming. This affects not only the Fisheries Department, but also other organizations, both private and public, that have to plan their own activities based on information on the status of fisheries and aquaculture. A fundamental problem with the existing system is that the data do not meet the needs for resource evaluation, fishery management, and identification of technical assistance and development needs. Aquaculture is not regularly or systematically covered.

Recommendation: As a high priority the Fisheries Department should seek technical assistance and financing to expand and modernize the collection, analysis and dissemination of information on inland fisheries and fish farming.

The project outline is in Working Paper No.13 (e).

4.1.7 Fishermen's Associations

There are a number of local and national-level inland fishermen's associations. One claimed a membership of 53,000 in 1983. Although the association is large, it appears to be relatively weakly organized as the Officers volunteer their services and there has not been a collection of dues for some years. A local association on Tono Reservoir is active in allocating fishermen to different areas of the reservoir and negotiates with the FD on fees for fishing. The mission believes that, like local and national level associations of fish farmers, the fishermen's association can make useful contributions to fisheries development and management.

Recommendation: The Fisheries Department should explore ways to constructively involve fishermen's associations in management and development activities.

4.1.8 Traditional and local government authorities for administration and management of CBF

This topic has been more fully covered in the report of the socio-economist. Discussions with Fishery Officers, interviews at dugouts and dams and the literature, e.g., Braimah (1990) and Mensah (1979), bring out the importance of incorporating local authorities, customs and traditions particularity in the early planning stages of management and development activities.

4.2 Academic Training and Research Institutions

The purpose of this section is to assess the capabilities of training and research institutions to support CBF.

4.2.1 The Institute of Aquatic Biology (IAB).

The institute is administered by the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology. There are five divisions, including the Fisheries Division which also undertakes aquaculture activities. There are seven research staff supported by an equal number of technical staff. Among the research staff there are one PhD. and two M.Sc. holders.

According to the 1989 Annual Report (Abban, in prep.), the fishery research focuses on estimating effects of Onchocerciasis control on riverain fishes, fish stock assessment in the Volta River below Akosombo and in the Kpong Headpond as well as surveys of clam and Macrobrachium populations in the Lower Volta area.

The aquaculture research is on Tilapias and has involved a survey of culture systems in Southern Ghana, production of all-male fish by hormone treatment and techniques for sexing by inspection. In addition, the division is evaluating growth of Oreochromis niloticus from Lake Volta.

The institute has an experimental aquaculture station at Akosombo (see Table 7). There have been problems with the water supply and with earthen ponds and delays in finishing the other facilities.

4.2.2 University of Ghana

There is a Department of Fisheries and Oceanography, but it is not fully staffed and not active in applied research at present.

The Department of Zoology encompasses aquatic sciences. Research on Macrobrachium vollenhoveni has been interrupted as the staff member is away for a doctoral degree.

The Volta Basin Research Project is oriented towards applied ecological studies. Research includes zooplankton ecology, soil suitability for crops and aquaculture, Egeria, the freshwater clam, and zoobenthos.

4.2.3 University of Cape Coast

The Department of Zoology has four faculty working in the fields of fisheries biology, life histories of shellfishes, crustacean biology and reproduction of tilapias. One faculty member has done a reservoir fisheries investigation. The research is oriented towards lagoon culture activities. Cage culture trials of Sarotherodon melanotheron have just begun.

The Department offers an undergraduate aquatic biology option in zoology for which there have been between 4 and 10 students and an M.Sc. in Zoology with an aquatic orientation for which there have been several students in recent years.

4.2.4 University of Science and Technology

The Department of Biological Sciences is only laterally involved with aquaculture and fisheries through basic course offerings.

The Institute of Renewable Natural Resources has four faculty at M.Sc. level doing teaching and research in aquatic sciences. The latter is focused on applied fish farming. There is a recently constructed laboratory and office block and 6 fry production ponds, 5 production ponds and 2 polyculture ponds that are adjacent to the campus. The experimental fish farm is meant to become self-financing by producing fingerlings for fish farmers. The major thrust of research is the reproduction of Heterobranchus. Success has yet to be achieved. There are clay turbidity problems in some ponds and others seep.

The institute offers a diploma (2 year studies) and B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees with an orientation in aquaculture, fisheries and river basin management. There are 3 students in the B.Sc. course at present. The diploma course has been attended by FD personnel. Two staff are currently enrolled. Also offered are adult residential courses during university holiday periods.

The Technology Consultancy Centre develops and promotes technologies that can be taken up as paying concerns in the private sector. The centre has been involved with cage culture trials in Lake Botsomtwi and hormone-induced production of monosex tilapia fingerlings with financing from GTZ. The project is presently inactive, but seeking funds to continue.

4.2.5 Assessment of institutional support from academic and research institutions

By the standards of many African countries the capabilities and facilities to undertake applied research to support fisheries management and development as well as fish farming are generally good. Nevertheless, the main criticism of the mission is that the research is not well focused on the most pressing problems. These institutions are not vigorously pursuing the results of applied research in other countries that could be used to considerably lower the costs and duration of applied research in-country. The responsibility for this has to be shared to some extent by international agencies, such as FAO, which produce information, but which do not always disseminate it to the institutions that need it most.

Coordination of research among the four academic and research organizations is weak. There is a lack of coordination of research activities among the three universities and the IAB as demonstrated by lack of communication and duplication of effort within and among institutions. One indication is that there are two initiatives to produce monosex tilapias by different methods, hybridization and hormone-induced sex reversal at UST. IAB also has underway sex reversal using hormones as well as sex by inspection. Links have been forged only between IAB and the IRNR of UST. The Fisheries Department has a representative on the steering committee of IAB and IRNR of UST. Another connection with the latter is the IRNR diploma programme for Fishery Officers. One impediment to stimulating the interest of one institution in another's research is that there is little publication of research results for lack of a journal.

Recommendation: The Fisheries Department should take the lead to set up a working group on coordination and prioritization of applied research in fisheries and aquaculture. The membership should include the organizations with activities or authority already identified. In order to give the Department the influence it requires, discretionary funds to contract research institutions for applied research activities should be made available to it.

4.3 Coordination of Management and Development

Coordination of management and development of fisheries and aquaculture is lacking or ineffective.

There are a variety of institutions involved with management and development of inland waters for supply of potable water and irrigation among which are Ghana Water and Sewerage, Irrigation Development Authority, Small-Scale Irrigation Development, Irrigation Company of the Upper Region and NGOs. The mission regards each water body as a potential site for a fishery or for aquaculture. However, development is hindered because there is a lack of communication or coordination between these many entities and the Fisheries Department. Where a clear policy exists such as “no fishing” on many of the GW&S reservoirs, then the policy needs to be reshaped so that the fishery potential of these waters can be realized. Likewise, where there is fishing and where ponds have been constructed for aquaculture development a clearer line of responsibility has to be defined concerning standardizing revenues for fishing, supply of water to ponds, and revenue from pond leases.

Coordination between the Fisheries Department and Irrigation Development Authority, although both are in the Ministry of Agriculture, seems to be deficient. Much is at stake because of the promising future of fish farming in irrigated areas and because of the large capital investments already made in ponds and facilities that, for the most part, are idle. Another example of the lack of coordination is that there is no clear policy on fishing access fees. Fishing on some IDA reservoirs is free (e.g., Afife), but on others there is a levy. Where there are levies, these vary widely, from Cedis 1000/mo on IDA reservoirs in the Northern Region to Cedis 1000/yr on Tono Reservoir which is under the administration of ICOUR.

ICOUR and the Fisheries Department both are attempting to stimulate fish farming in Northern Ghana. Both are doing the same or similar trials involving fish farming in irrigated areas, e.g., pig-fish farming. At one site, the facilities are side-by-side. Yet, no formal cooperation or coordination of activities appears to exist.

Recommendation: The Ministry of Agriculture/Fisheries Department should ensure effective coordination for the smooth administration and management of fisheries in IDA reservoirs and for the development of fish farming in IDA irrigated areas. The Fisheries Department should be provided with an administrative mechanism which ensures that they are properly consulted on all decisions concerning reservoir and irrigation development which might affect fishery or fish farming development potential. Similarly, the same objectives should be pursued with Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation. As far as is known, there is no fish farming below GW&S dams where water is ample throughout the year, such as at Weija and Barikese, but each site could potentially be used for this purpose. The Department needs to check into these opportunities. The Technology Consultancy Centre (TCC) of UST is in a good position to take advantage of applied research results in aquaculture and fisheries. In so far as these could be developed for small business enterprises, the Fisheries Department should keep the TCC informed.