In Zambia the fisheries department is within the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. In Malawi the fisheries department is within the Ministry of Forestry and Natural Resources. Botswana, Swaziland, and Lesotho have fisheries units within the ministries working with agriculture. In Mozambique inland fisheries is within a unit in the Ministry of Agriculture, while mariculture falls under the Ministry of Fisheries. Namibia's aquaculture is administrated within the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources. In Zimbabwe extension falls within the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Water Development, while research, management and control lie within the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. In Tanzania there is a fisheries division within the Ministry of Tourism, Natural Resources and Environment. In Angola inland aquaculture comes under the Ministry of Agriculture, while mariculture is housed in the Ministry of Fisheries.
Aquaculture is a young and small sub-sector in all SADC-countries. Consequently the institutions are generally weak, although less so in countries with important inland capture fisheries, like Malawi and Zambia.
Few countries have explicit policies and plans for aquaculture development based on thorough investigations of physical and economic potential. Such planning is under way in Malawi. Zambia and Zimbabwe have requested FAO assistance in sectoral planning.
Legislation for inland and marine aquaculture is generally not elaborated. Existing legislation relates more to conservation than development of the sector. In Lesotho, FAO is supporting the elaboration of legislation with consultancy services. Legislation is being elaborated in Botswana relating to ownership, control and exploitation of small water bodies.
Training facilities exist for extension workers (Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania). Higher level training specialized in aquaculture exists only in Malawi.
Research facilities have suffered from the general decline of the governmental fish farming stations, and adequately functioning research centres exist only in Malawi, Lesotho, and Namibia (inland aquaculture) and Tanzania and Namibia (mariculture). Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe have stations which with some rehabilitation and upgrading could function for aquaculture research. Few universities have aquaculture research on their programmes. Bunda College in Malawi is doing research connected with masters' training in collaboration with ICLARM. The Africa University in Zimbabwe has built research and fingerling production facilities. The Sokoine University in Tanzania is at present building such facilities. The Institute for Marine Sciences in Zanzibar has facilities for mariculture research as has the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources' stations in Luderitz and Swakopmund in Namibia.
Extension services vary in the region. Zimbabwe has a functioning agriculture extension system, which includes aquaculture. Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia are expanding their extension services through collaboration with the agriculture extension systems and with the fisheries staff functioning as subject matter specialists. These approaches considerably expand the coverage and impact of extension.
Libraries and documentation centres exist in the administrative units for fisheries and aquaculture. These have suffered from financial restrictions and are often not up-to-date in their collections. The maintenance of the libraries also suffers from lack of trained staff and equipment (computers). There are good collections in Zimbabwe (Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management), Malawi (Department of Fisheries), and Namibia (Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources). The library established in Zomba, Malawi, with support from ICLARM/GTZ has the capacity to function as a regional documentation centre. ALCOM's library in Harare, focusing more on “grey literature” aspires to have a regional function. There are no established networks between documentation centres and linkages with regional and international databases.
Because of the small size of the sector and economically harsh times in the region, it's unlikely that aquaculture institutions will considerably expand during the period under review. Thus the fisheries administrations need to find ways to increase their impact with limited resources. The attempt to engage agriculture extension systems in aquaculture is one such step. Others may involve a review of the most crucial tasks and a focus of resources on these. Unorthodox solutions to institutional problems, for example by engaging the private sector and NGOs, are needed for governmental institutions to provide essential services to the sector.
In some countries, institutional credit is available to large-scale commercial aquaculture enterprises. However, as yet there is no institutional credit facility for the small-scale aquaculture sector because of lack of collateral and knowledge on the part of the institution on assessment of credit needs in the aquaculture sector.
Private sector research is carried out by the Trout Farmers' Association in Zimbabwe in collaboration with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management. Other private sector research or trials are carried out within companies such as hatching of oysters in Namibia, and testing of culture methods for seaweed in Zanzibar.
Fish farmer associations have been established on different levels, for example among small-scale rural producers in Zambia and large-scale commercial producers in Zimbabwe. There are, as yet, few attempts to establish networks and channels for marketing information by the private sector. Market information is often referred to as a problem, specially among commercial producers aiming at an export market. The private sector often refers to difficulties with access to technical information.
