Summary of Findings
1. The aquafarm complex at Ngomeni, though incompletely constructed and with many operating difficulties, has demonstrated the technical feasibility of shrimp farming. The economic feasibility has still to be shown so as to encourage investors.
2. Mechanical means to complete the main perimeter dykes, intake canals, sluice gate, etc. with pumping systems installed, are essential to rapidly demonstrate production levels and operate systems of extensive, semi-extensive prawn farming.
3. Work efficiency at the station is severely reduced through lack of basic amenities (housing, field laboratory office, toilets, water, electricity). Pond operating times are best at night tides for fry collection, harvesting, etc. Several constraints to be relieved.
4. Technical and administrative staff of junior professionals unused to responsibilities and exigencies required in a pioneer development project. Budgetary constraints, project autonomy, staff levels and training, etc. to be resolved.
5. Recent survey report of tidal lands indicated the best immediate development opportunities which offer attractive diversified potential in prawn farming opportunities for industrial salt estates, integrated systems for brine shrimp Artemia mass-production.
6. Shrimp hatchery collaboration and Artemia production are essential for intensive P. mondon farming and may be done in collaboration (KMFRI/DDF/Salt Industry) as a joint-venture, but further pratical application trials are needed.
7. Applied research studies could provide useful inputs through institutional collaboration in particular activies.
Recommendations Summary
1. The UNDP project support should continue for another 3 to 4 years.
2. Ngomeni aquafarm complex should be completed and made fully functional, within a year, with adequate housing, worksheds, laboratory/office/storage, amenities of water and electricity, to permit required operating efficiency.
3. Technical improvements in design operations and harvesting to be introduced to provide data yield for assessments of semi-intensive and extensive systems of prawn farming.
4. Project staff training in Asia to be promptly organized for specialized instruction and work experience in standard Asian prawn farming systems.
5. Administrative coordination to facilitate technical and operational activities should be facilitated by a project consultative committee comprising government services and private interests directly involved.
6. Salt industries should be deliberately involved and encouraged to invest in prawn farming integrated with their operations for diversified production, employment and earnings in semi-intensive systems, Artemia and intensive systems.
7. Prawn hatchery for mass-production of juvenile P. monodon should be pursued as a joint-venture investment possibility with GOK and salt industries.
8. The estate concept for small holders participation in new areas which are suitable for coastal aquaculture should be considered in detail when the project has accumulated more techno-economic data.
Summary of Findings
1. The fry production centres at Kibos, Rongo and Borabu are nearing completion, but must still be brought into full operation.
2. The Kibos centre has not yet been expanded to provide a central office/laboratory complex for all project staff, and additional demonstration ponds integrated with livestock pens are required at this site.
3. The fish-farming extension service has been well implanted and has also trained some DOF staff working in the same area, but being a long-term programme it needs continued, close monitoring and support.
4. Private fish-farmers already provide considerable quantities of fish fry on a commercial basis in some areas, as well as adult fish as a basis for cash income, but more attractive yields are required.
5. Greater technical and administrative responsibilities could be assumed by national staff after additional specialized training and experience, particularly as the operations of the project expand and become more complex.
6. Collaboration between the many different agencies concerned with rural fishculture promotion and extension activities already exists but could be reinforced to facilitate mutual development benefits by more regular and formal consultations.
7. Even for fishfarmers intending to construct/rehabilitate rather small-sized fish ponds, lack of available credit is a significant constraint which must be overcome if larger and potentially more productive ponds are to be established. There is presently no operative credit system to open to small-scale farmers for fishculture activities.
Recommendations Summary
1. The present project should be extended in order to complete the fry production centres under construction, to bring them into full operation without delay, and to continue developing skills and experience of the essential extension service.
2. The Kibos centre should be expanded in terms of an office/laboratory complex, and the construction of additional production demonstration ponds, particularly for integrated livestock/fishculture techniques.
3. Private investors should be encouraged to take up fry production on a commercial basis; and this solution is especially recommended for the Busia, Siaya and Kakamega Districts where so far arrangements for the siting and construction of government production centres have not yet been finalized and the demand for fingerlings is increasing.
4. Senior counterpart staff training should be intensified to expand their skills and experience in rural tilapia aquaculture techniques developed successfully elsewhere - particularly in SE Asia. Similarly training should be assigned for aquaculture engineering, business management/budgetary planning and accounting.
5. The established extension service should be reinforced by recruitment of a few female extension officers, but mainly by continued support, monitoring and refresher training of existing staff. Liaison with farmers' training centres, schools and other community groups should be intensified.
6. Small-holders should be encouraged to construct ponds of at least 500 m2 equipped with more appropriate water control measures and integrated with livestock and farming activities.
7. The project should expand its attempts to promote monosex tilapia culture, better breeding systems, integrated livestock/fishculture, cage-culture in reservoirs, and also examine polyculture opportunities.
8. An operational credit system to which small-holders can have ready access for fishculture should be set up as a matter of priority. Only when project-based initiatives regarding credit have proved workable will larger more conservative financing institutions be prepared to follow suit.
9. A project consultative committee should be convened regularly to facilitate and promote inter-agency collaboration in fishculture which interests a large number of other government and private agencies.
10. Special contractual arrangements should be made with KMFRI and University of Nairobi for the conduct of practical short-term studies on polyculture systems using other species.
Summary of Findings
1. The campus of WFTI is splendidly provided with buildings and amenities, though the fishery laboratory and field station need particular attention to provide appropriate facilities for practical instruction.
2. Most fisheries staff comprise recent graduates, generally without training in instructional methods, and requiring more knowledge of local problems at field stations and of the specific services being rendered in various areas of the country with development projects.
3. Staff training needs and possible technical assistance inputs with regard to courses planned have been discussed but not fully defined. The broad priorities are stated to be aquaculture, fish processing and storage, fisheries management.
4. Fish specimens, reference collection for teaching, a library of relevant publications, demonstrations of current and improved techniques (fishculture, processing, fish capture, etc.) are still to be established and require considerable preparation.
5. The refresher classes for selected assistant fishery officers and fish scouts gave theoretical lectures only with some field visits since the practical curriculum is still to be developed.
6. There have been evidently few lecture inputs from senior staff in charge of DOF, KMFRI, LBDA project, nor the provisional or planned use of their field stations, as part of the certificate or diploma courses.
7. The curriculum has been broadly indicated, but the course structures have still to be planned as an integral programme for the different staff levels and operating activities of DOF.
8. The equipment needs still have to be detailed to match the priorities of the fishery programme.
Summary of Recommendations
Start up phase
1. Since the main function of WFTI is to prepare the DOF field staff (900) to carry out the fisheries development programme more effectively. The priority sectors for action should be clearly endorsed and approved according to Kenya's national strategic planning goals, so that manpower plans/needs can be specifically targetted and phased.
2. The training programme of WFTI should accordingly address these priority sectors both as subjects for refresher courses for staff and for new systems, thus forming the basis of an appropriate curriculum of studies according to priority disciplines and sectors.
3. Senior DOF officers, station heads and project leaders should be used as guest lecturers to describe the aims, activities and technical problems so as to provide the trainees with a focus on district operational targets.
4. Basic lecture material must be created and provided by the instructors from summaries/extracts of national or project reports, country statements, statistical data of production, trend requirements, technical conferences, etc. from existing institutional libraries (Universities, DOF, KMFRI, FAO, UNEP, etc.).
5. The present theoretical courses should be considerably reinforced by practical model building of recommended systems for extension use, special hands-on practical courses in particular disciplines (aquaculture, fish processing, fish breeding, fish technology) with invited specialists who use WFTI facilities. Work projects and immersion courses should be conducted at DOF or LBDA field stations (Sagana, Kiganjo, Kibos, Ngomeni) as on-the-job practice with senior staff supervision.
Development phase
6. Technical inputs need to be more clearly specified after exercise (2) involving expertise, equipment, and collaboration with on-going UNDP, FAO or bi-lateral projects in Kenya and adjacent countries (especially for Lake Victoria and marine fisheries).
7. Training bursaries for lecturers (in-service and those to be recruited) should provide for visits to other such training schools in developing countries for curriculum development of study courses, instruction training methods (audio-visuals, models, etc.) and in fishing gear systems and boat building /maintenance.
8. A programme of UNDP assistance should provide the inputs over approximately one year for training bursaries locally and overseas, detailing the equipment needs for the priority programme and expert services for such instructor requirements that cannot be filled by local recruitment/training.
9. The long-term development of this institute should be significantly assisted by a “twinning arrangement” with other tropical oriented fishery training institutes still to be identified. This may be a useful role for bi-lateral support inputs.
10. The activities of WFTI would be significantly assisted by the services of more permanent advisory team for fisheries aspects, which should function so as to make the programme more responsive to the changing exigencies of fisheries training requirements.
The mission has noted the close interaction between the DOF and other Institutes and Ministries which are responsible for various aspects of fisheries research, training and development extension viz: KMFRI, WFTI, LBDA. It also noted that they all recruit graduate staff from the University of Nairobi, and that technical staff derive from various educational institutions of the country. Further, all the special development programmes assisted by international or bi-lateral agencies are addressing (often separately) particular aspects of fisheries either in disciplines which overlap or are closely related, but are being conducted by different national departments.
There has been for instance, a national review on aquaculture, while several reports on different activities have been compiled which indicate that there have been nearly a score of projects which are assisting the development of fisheries. At the same time the keen institutional desire to strengthen the capability of national staff, and the urgent needs for development change, have often meant that overseas training opportunities and bilateral inputs are readily accepted, though they many not always be of direct relevance to national priority needs. Furthermore some projects have developed with inadequate staff support and the linkage of activities has not been effective.
It is evident that the consideration of an integrated strategic plan for national development of the fisheries sector, which has been stated to be agreed in principle, needs urgent implementation. A full review of the priorities needs has to be addressed in coordinated manner; according to available resources, population/market concentrations, applied research on problems for development, manpower planning/training, the development of investment opportunities for jobs/earnings, and consequent support service inputs from the public and private sectors.
The three projects that have been reviewed illustrate this close interrelation of institutional and service needs. Further, they expose the need for staff training and technology transfer through extension, to be orderly planned for the strategic modernisation of all fishery activities. Thus, while LBDA's fish farming project seeks to rehabilitate abandoned ponds and spark a fish-farming revival by introducing better extension methods, WFTI is independently retraining the extension staff of DOF, using staff recruited from DOF and KMFRI. Similar complementarity exists with Ngomeni and KMFRI.
Though there is an awareness between the institutions of these activities, the coordination that is needed must derive from the implementation of activities which are the agreed priorities that contribute to a planned strategy of development inputs, with clear output targets. The medium and long-term goals should be reconciled with the present institutional structures, projects and private activities which are now conducting the short-to-medium-term programme. The institutional building and budget readjustments needed to satisfy these priority ares should then be evident. Consequently the actual inputs (current and planned) for achieving these determined goals and policy commitments, should be decided together with implementation priorities. The additional national manpower/training and specific external expertise requirements can then form the basis of the coherent and comprehensive strategic fishery development plan, with logically phased implementation and officially endorsed and approved total funding.
Accordingly, the mission recommends that there should be a special study for strategic planning of the fisheries sector. This should be given urgent attention so that their recommendations can be promptly incorporated for adjustments of short and medium-term recurrent/development budgets.
1. Coastal aquaculture - KEN/80/018
In the meeting at the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife attended by representatives of all units concerned, there was unanimous agreement on the need for continuation of the programme of culture trials for at least three years so as to provide clear data on opportunities for subsequent investment. Completion of the aquafarm complex plus accommodation at Ngomeni itself was a basic necessity.
Technical priorities
Completion of the aquafarm facilities needed for the trials, to include the 18-ha extensive pond, the 3-ha semi-intensive pond, as well as related sluice gates, drainage and supply canals and pumping stations.
Training of Kenyan staff from both the project, from KMFRI and from the private sector through specially organized assignments in particular aspects of prawn culture as practised in southeast Asia.
Full-time work at the Ngomeni aquafarm to be arranged soonest by providing senior and junior accommodation, offices, electricity, freshwater.
Immediate development of extensive-type shrimp culture in existing saltworks reservoir ponds, assisted by the project, starting particularly with Kensalt, the parastatal company.
Development of a joint enterprise hatchery (GOK/saltworks enterprises) to provide P. monodon fry for stocking, and Artemia production from the evaporation ponds as second-stage activities.
Government to explore immediately with UNDP the possibilities for urgent funding of these inputs.
Administrative actions
GOK forward budgeting exercise to be examined by Ministries of Finance, Tourism and Wildlife to ensure that essential budgets for continuation of the project, from both UNDP and GOK, are fully registered.
A representative of the Ministry of Finance (Planning Unit) should accompany the Director of Fisheries to Thailand, Philippines and Kerala (India), to study the application of southeast Asian shrimp culture developments and its policy implications for Kenya.
Specialists with practical experience in shrimpfarm management, in shrimp hatchery/fry production are required over the next three years to ensure full aquafarm developments at Ngomeni, with fulfilment of the production trials and hatchery operations whilst existing and additional Kenyan staff acquire specialized training and experience.
Kenyan expertise in pond construction, civil works, management, shrimp breeding, fry abundance, Artemia production, to be utilized at the project but certain other tasks will still require short-term international technical assistance.
The SIFIDA proposals on prefeasibility studies for investment should be appropriately examined when the project has accumulated extra basic data.
Small-holders involvement in coastal aquaculture through estate systems must be examined again later when data from extensive/semi-intensive trials are available, together with systems for adequate fry production/collection.
Project consultative committee to facilitate coordination between all parties, to be established.
2. Small-scale fishfarming (LBDA) - KEN/80/006
At the terminal review meeting held at the Ministry of Energy and Regional Development together with officials of other Departments concerned, the following observations and decisions were made endorsing the mission's findings and recommendations:
General
The project should continue for another 3.5 years
The Belgian Survival Fund (BSF) support will continue with due recognition and publicity of its inputs
BSF could be the principal donor for the credit revolving fund for promoting private groups to develop commercial fisharming
The need to progress from rehabilitating subsistence ponds to commercial production, providing attractive levels of earnings and jobs.
Technical priorities
Larger fishponds (at least 500 m2) should be advocated with deliberate efforts toward commercial production by groups and/or individuals
Higher yields of larger-sized fish needed through demonstrated model integrated livestock/fishfarming systems and improved husbandry methods
Deliberate encouragement through technical training of operators of private fry production centres
Mono-sex fishculture, broodstock development, and polyculture systems to be developed as standard techniques at GOK/LBDA centres
Predator control systems to be introduced
Fishfarming integrated with irrigated agriculture schemes to be started, e.g., rice cultivation, water retention dams
Cage-culture systems and hatcheries for water reservoirs to be developed
Production cost economics, prices of fingerlings to be determined
Specialist studies to be undertaken through consultancy services by KMFRI, University of Nairobi, etc.
Administrative actions
UNDP/BSF will provide limited inputs needed to establish essential office, laboratory, storage, livestock pens at Kibos and identified systems (duck pens, cage culture, happa hatcheries) for Rongo, Borabu
GOK/LBDA funding with limited operational staff will be allocated as a commitment budget for the continuous conduct of the stations, in accordance with financial regulations
A future revolving credit fund to be separately administered (not directly by the project but an appropriate credit agency, such as is being set up by LBDA for rainfed rice, or Chekalene with FAO) to promote private commercial fishfarming production
Deliberate promotion of private fry production centres in specific areas in lieu of GOK/LBDA construction and operation
Future responsibility to lay with DOF for LBDA extensionists
Priority national staff training to assume full responsibilities for extension in year 1 and full national direction of the project by year 3
Identified specialist expatriate inputs will be limited, reducing high personnel costs on the project and phasing them out by year 3
A standing consultative committee for the project, together with smaller district working groups as required
Emergent commercial fishfarmers to be further trained for gradual evolution toward larger enterprises (e.g. Kabonyo and bilateral project proposals).
3. Wildlife and Fisheries Training Institute - Naivasha - KEN/86/006
During the meeting at the Minstry of Tourism and Wildlife it became evident that previous submissions from WFTI for technical assistance had not been awarded highest priority for consideration in the UNDP country programme. However, in these final discussions with representatives of all departments concerned the following points were concluded:
General
The mission's recommendations for limited but immediate initial inputs of technical assistance with further utilization of staff services from other relevant national institutions, were fully agreed in principle
DOF had proposed a request for assistance from FAO for a three-month training exercise in teaching methodology for WFTI staff, but its formal submission was still in process
Bilateral assistance which was being informally explored by WFTI should be encouraged, so as to satisfy longer-term needs.
Technical priorities
Equipment for hands-on instruction and field participatory activities by junior and middle-level trainees in specific disciplines to be arranged according to priority disciplines of DOF's strategic fishery development plans, e.g. recommended aquaculture systems, fish preservation, fishing technology, etc., for particular localities
Phased inputs by sister institutes and projects in practical training assignments for junior and middle-level staff, e.g. at field stations, standardized methods or innovations of KMFRI, book-keeping systems of KIM, etc.
Training exercises for WFTI lecturers through fellowships or short-term consultancy services should address the priority specializations, as they progressively develop the training curriculum designed specifically for Kenya's operational programme
A longer-term programme for medium and senior level courses should follow the development of curricula, and specific course contents should be according to industry or locality needs
Detailed courses and lecture materials to be developed as speedily as possible by a think-tank of lecturers together with staff of DOF, KMFRI, etc.
Administrative actions
Formal submission of GOK request for a short course on fisheries teachers' training methodology to be expedited, with possible inclusion of similar wildlife teachers' requirements also
Institutional linkages and twinning to be encouraged with tropical fishery colleges for a continuing exchange of experience (Africa, Asia particularly)
Approaches to bilateral agencies for supplementary inputs (literature, equipment, guest lecturers, etc.) toward institution-building
Existing WFTI consultative committee to be linked to other projects, facilitating Kenya-based institutions inputs, and effective nation-wide coordination.
It is customary for internal or tripartite evaluation to review the design, expertise inputs, training and project environment according to a specific checklist. The mission did not specifically do this. This had no doubt been done by previous missions, and indeed there have been at least two previous reviews which assessed the two ongoing projects. However, in separate discussions with the UNDP Representative and deputy Representative, the FAO Representative and the Directors of Fisheries, KMFRI and LBDA, there were comments expressed related to:
general direction of the projects; level of expert inputs in relation to current and future national needs; expenditure quantum and quality of expatriate services; agency's flexibility in accommodating national operating exigencies; adequacy of national training component; appropriateness of overseas training; need for shared responsibility in project decision-making toward autonomous national direction of coordinated activities.
These perceptions have also been further influenced by high-level government policy decisions to limit the inputs of expatriates in technical assistance projects, the economic and financial constraints of GOK and the new programme budgeting system, which have all imposed a general re-examination of foreign assistance. There has also been evident a particular objection to volunteers and associate experts, except where their specific expertise discipline cannot be immediately provided by national staff when given further training.
From the aspect of national contributions to project direction, it should also be said that while there may have been in the past almost total reliance on the executing agency as responsible for project decisions and implementation of work plan, more recently the national mood has been for national direction. However, departments concerned may not have taken the appropriate necessary steps to become more involved in project direction. This will require services of more senior staff in projects working in field activities so that field operations will be more responsibly directed by nationals. Required expatriate inputs will be then technical rather than quasi-administrative as well. Further, the staff training opportunities need to be better programmed and applied, both in candidate selection and subsequent duty assignments.
The above circumstances may be effectively addressed by the project leaders of the continuing phases of projects. However, there will also be required adequate staff briefing by the executing agency, the supportive services of the national advisory committees of projects, and a more collective responsibility toward the achievement of the project objectives within the national context.
