5. RESEARCH AND EXTENSION

5.1 RESEARCH

Research and development efforts in integrated fish-farming in Zambia have so far achieved considerable progress and created significant benefits in the form of commercial developments. Development potential has been demonstrated locally, an appropriate species identified, and broodstock and seed supplies established. In addition, it has been shown that high yields from intensive production systems using pigs and ducks are technically feasible in Zambian conditions. The commercial viability of these systems has been proven, at least under conditions where there is access to markets for the products of integrated livestock-fish farming, where key inputs are available and where the capability to apply a high level of management exists.

Mainly because of the lack of capability in extension for aquaculture, the development of integrated fish-farming has been largely confined to commercial and emergent farmers. There has been very little and only recent involvement of the small-scale sector. Commercial and emergent farmers tend to have adequate resources of their own for investment in new development and are mobile and informed, thereby making them relatively independent of extension services. They are also generally not as constrained by the need to avoid costly inputs and to apply low levels of management as small-scale farmers are.

Commercial and emergent farmers have consequently been able to make significant progress with the commercial development of integrated fish-farming, and a wide variety of systems reflecting local input supply and market conditions have been successfully established. The important issue facing development agencies now is how to achieve similar progress within the small-scale farming sector. Here, there is the particular question of whether the duck-cum-fish farming production system, which has been developed and promoted by the present and earlier projects, can be successfully applied to the small-scale sector in Zambia.

In addressing this particular issue, it must be stressed that the Peking duck-cum-fish farming system developed for Zambia by FAO-executed projects has been established in the commercial sector. Kalimba Farms Ltd., located close to Lusaka, are achieving high fish yields from ponds fertilized by Peking ducks and are obtaining reasonable returns from the production and sale of duck meat (see Table 5).

Farmgate income from sale of one duck - K 82.80

^* Net of additional fish yield produced by pond fertilization by the ducks

The farm is self-sufficient for Peking duck production with its own broodstock and hatching facilities and has achieved a greater level of efficiency in terms of hatching rates and post-hatching survival than the government research stations producing Peking ducks (see Table 6).

NOTE: Hatching rate is the percentage of incubated eggs which are fertile. Further mortality is the percentage of hatched ducklings which do not survive for eventual sale as ducklings, meat ducks or eventual use as broodstock.

Normal fish yields on the farm have been toward the higher end of the range predicted by the project trials, i.e., around 6 t/ha/year, and a yield of more than 9 t/ha/year was reported in January 1990.

There seems little doubt that the Peking duck-cum-fish system can be commercially successful. However, the attainment of such yields and profitability are critically dependent on various elements in the production operation which do not generally exist, and cannot be expected to be developed within village or small-scale agriculture in the rural areas of the country. These include the ready availability of stockfeeds, the financial resources to buy such costly external inputs, a high level of specialized and intensive management expertise, and good access to markets. The detailed attention to schedules and conditions for incubation and post-hatching management needs, in addition to maintaining a regular supply of good quality feed would not fit well with the low level management, low external input and diverse, risk-spreading strategies practised by small-scale farmers.

Different solutions to intensive livestock-cum-fish production are needed and, consequently, different approaches to research are required. Further, the evidently successful transfer of Peking duck-cum-fish farming to the commercial sector reduces the need for continued research and development work on the system at government stations. Further development can now best be achieved through increased private sector involvement and this should be promoted by the government. The risk inherent in continuing to depend on government involvement is that research stations will come to be regarded as suppliers of duckling for an expanding industry, a function which although necessary is more efficiently carried out by a dedicated operation in the private sector than by a research organization.

The more important consideration at the present time, and with the current emphasis on the small-scale sector, is the identification of research activity which will be appropriate to the needs and potentials of that sector. Given the highly localized nature of these potentials and constraints, and the greater complexity of the factors influencing the decisions of small-scale farmers, it is beyond the scope of this study to provide specific and comprehensive advice on what particular lines of research should be followed. However, the first requirement would appear to be to establish an approach which reflects the broad and complex nature of factors affecting small-scale farmers' choices of farming systems and subsystems. A holistic approach, involving multi-disciplinary assessments of particular local conditions, is required. Appropriate solutions to the integration of fish-farming into existing farming systems would also be best identified, tested and demonstrated by building up locally appropriate models of production systems and by adaptive research into these on the small-scale farms themselves. The basic aim of such research activities should be to identify low external input, low-level management solutions for the profitable integration of fish farming. More specific lines of inquiry might be the development of feeds based on local materials, changes to cropping patterns to increase feed for livestock or to increase the availability of compost material, and changes to small-scale farm livestock practices which would increase the availability of high quality manure.

Such changes to management might include the use of ducks as sources of manure, and future research should include investigation of the potential of the local Muscovy duck. Current integrated farm practices on at least one institutional farm (St. Joseph's Mission) are based on improved management of Muscovy duck production and at least one small-scale farmer in the Chipata area has firm plans to incorporate the use of Muscovy ducks into the farm production system. The well-established management practices at St. Joseph's Mission have contributed significantly to increased pond yields. Reproduction and survival rates of between 30 and 40 ducks per year from one parent bird are reported. More important, and from the point of view of development of integrated systems at the village level, these increased yields have been achieved by applying low level management without the use of incubation and only minimal use of purchased feeds. Such a system should be more thoroughly tested and there seems to be a reasonable chance that it could be applied at the village level. Pond yields would likely be lower than those achieved through the more intensive Peking duck-cum-fish system. Nevertheless, real increases in yield would be possible and the remotely based small-scale farmer would be less dependent on supplies of external inputs such as feeds and hatchery-produced ducklings.

Solutions such as this or others emerging from within the small-scale sector should be investigated and developed as part of a farming systems programme of research and an important element of such a programme should be demonstration and adaptation at the farm level. Where small-scale farmers indicate a willingness to alter their systems in innovative ways aimed at increasing the availability of feed or fertilizer, the advisory services should be able to give practical support, including support at the farm level.

5.2 EXTENSION

The main constraint to the development of integrated fish farming in Zambia's small-scale farming sector has been clearly identified as the lack of extension capability in aquaculture. However, the country has an important resource in its existing agricultural extension service. This is highly developed and operates at grass roots levels throughout the rural areas; for example, the agricultural extension service in Eastern Province has more than 300 extension agents based in the villages of the province, many of which are extremely remote and poorly served by roads or transport. The only realistic and affordable strategy for any aquaculture development effort within the small-scale sector is to use this existing agricultural extension service, as a specialized aquaculture extension service would be prohibitively expensive. In any case, the use of the agricultural service guarantees at least some degree of integration of approach necessary to support producers who would themselves be trying to integrate fish production with their crop and livestock production systems.

It should be noted that the present project has achieved an initial impact in the small-scale sector through extension activities in areas close to the government fish culture stations at Chilanga, Chipata and Mwekera. It is interesting that these initial efforts confirm to some extent the need to use the existing agricultural extension service for integrated fish-farming. The detailed local knowledge which agricultural extension officers have of their farming communities is observed to be making a positive contribution to the promotion of integrated fish-farming at the village level.

It is significant that the approach and extension advice so far offered at the village level have been flexible and appropriate to the farmers' circumstances rather than emphasizing the benefits of one particular type of intensive production system. The need to adopt a holistic farming systems approach to development within the small-scale sector is, therefore, being confirmed by initial experiences in the field.