4.1.1 Government Fishery Services
Success of development projects largely depends on the government authorities' interest in them and support for them. Now, we see that government fishery services often form part of a ministry mainly concerned with agriculture or tourism, forestry or hunting. As a result, fisheries take a back seat and their economic significance is often overlooked.
First of all, the administrative services concerned with fisheries should have an appropriate place in the hierarchy with adequate personnel to make their voice heard clearly in the top government and planning quarters.
The services should also be organized in such a way that they can really operate in the field. This means that they must be provided with qualified staff and the necessary special infrastructure (crosscountry vehicles, boats, fuel, etc.). Experience shows that such minimum infrastructure is often unavailable. The immediate result is to immobilize fishery officers in the capital cities or big towns.
Another important point is the strict definition of what such services must do. We note that most of them confine themselves to collecting fish fees or to fishery police duties. Consequently, such services do not enjoy the fishermen's confidence and can hardly undertake extension work in the field. Different divisions should be set up, with distinct and specialized staff in each of them. Extension services obviously cannot perform police duties or levy fees. Let us see now more concretely what objectives can be laid down for disseminating fishing techniques. An organizational pattern and the role of a fishery technology service are given in the Appendix.
4.1.1.1 Training of Extension Personnel
Training should be undertaken at several levels: engineers, higher technicians, technicians, and field assistants. Regional or multinational training should be envisaged to cut costs. Following their training, such personnel should have the same status as the other officers of the same grades so that the graduates will not quit for better paid jobs.
They would have to work out a general development policy for fishery technology and for other fishery sectors. One of their main duties would be to establish a reliable programme of fishery statistics. New technology can be transferred only if accurate statistics are available. But such data are not available in most cases at present.
4.1.1.2 Pilot Extension Units
Part of the extension personnel, whose training should be down to earth and practical, would be detached from the central services to launch pilot extension units. Training should also provide for regular refresher courses to cover improvements in technology and to exchange experiences.
Experiments would be made in fishing grounds and train fishermen “leaders” who would be expected to improve fishery organization in their communities.
The extension units should be autonomous in relation to the central administration.
The units could be set up as fishery community centres providing a number of technical services for several camps, villages or groups of fishermen.
These extension units are the very basis for fishery development. This is why their establishment should be carefully prepared. Accurate investigations into the fishermen's milieu have to be made beforehand by a multidisciplinary team composed of sociologists, rural economists, experts in customary law (traditional fishing rights are of fundamental importance) and fishery technologists.
There must be constant contact with the fishermen if the operation is to be successful. In particular, one ought not to underestimate the importance of choosing the fishermen leaders, the link between extension workers and fishermen.
In addition to training fishermen “leaders”, the fishery community centre could supply material suitable for local conditions. Through its own fishing activities, it could also demonstrate to neighbouring fishermen the effectiveness of an appropriate technology.
Lastly, national (and/or international) experts should monitor activities to ensure the smooth operation of fishery community centres.
4.1.2 Regional Development Agencies
Regional development agencies should take over staff training from the government services. As already said, this would considerably reduce the costs of general training, supplemented by courses in the field in each country. For countries bordering on the same lake or river, the regional agency should work out a joint fishery policy to avoid waste or overexploitation of resources and should review needs to set priorities. It should collate accurate statistics. Such an institution evidently cannot engage in extension work concerning fishery technology. But it can alert its member governments to fishery problems and promote certain local programmes by obtaining funds.
4.1.3 International Assistance Agencies
The role of international agencies is to provide technical resources and know-how to meet the needs determined by governments. As most of these countries have a shortage of professional staff, assistance by experts is necessary.
In the field of fishery technology, it would first of all be advisable to review the best techniques for the different environments and to disseminate them in the form of very simple illustrated booklets in the principal languages, especially for the use of extension workers. Audio-visual aids might be used in villages or communities of fishermen. This could also be an opportunity for meetings between technologists and fishermen.
Investigations into the socio-economic milieu would deserve more attention before any project is launched. Participation in training by multidisciplinary teams and comparison of the results of field surveys should also be planned in the future.
Experience shows that many projects fail because fishermen do not understand the objectives of assistance and therefore do not feel involved. The expert in technology, whether he be international or national, must be equipped to cope with such basic communication problems.
4.1.4 Institutions for Research and Technology
These bodies, both national (universities, departments of forestry and water) and those dealing with foreign aid, have an important role to play in assessing the fishery potential of inland waters and in protecting the natural environment. In line with their research results, recommendations may be made for or against the introduction of a new technology. It would also be up to them to record and monitor the effects of new techniques on resources and the environment.
In order to reach the objectives already defined in the document, the following practical activities should be undertaken.
4.2.1 Technical Assistance and Advice to Officers of Government Services and Field Personnel
For lack of experience and resources, most developing countries have to rely on foreign experts. They act as advisers to the governmental fishery services in working out fishery development policy and in trying to implement it.
The experts, in the initial period, also have to lay down programmes for training, fishery regulations, technology and statistics. It is therefore important that priorities and the duties of each expert be clearly defined.
In the case of fishery technologists, who are both advisers to the government and instructors in the field, the first aspect can be dealt with more easily than the latter. Thus, their activities are frequently confined to office work in the capital city.
In general, it would always be useful to work out a practical policy for approaching fishermen, failing which new techniques would be taught only to government officers but never to the fishermen.
Technical assistance would also have to advise governments on methods for improving fishermen's income, especially through new credit systems that are more favourable for fishermen.
4.2.2 Advice to Industrialists, Boat and Fishing-Gear Manufacturers
Most of the nets used in Africa are imported ones. Probably the manufacture of fishing gear in the user countries would make it possible to lower costs. That is why fishery experts and technological personnel should suggest the setting-up of industrial plants for the manufacture of nets in the vicinity of the main fishing grounds. These plants, which might become an integral part of the existing textile industries, would usually have to import their raw materials. However, setting-up of such new plants can only be considered if a preliminary technical-economic study indicates that it is advisable.
On the other hand, nets can also be made locally as a handicraft (hand lacing of the webbing using imported twine) wherever local manpower is ample.
The use of materials available locally (for instance, twine or nets of natural textile fibres given a preservative treatment, weights made of terra cotta or cement) should be encouraged to the extent that they are cheaper and the gear is no less efficient.
Technological personnel and experts would also have to advise domestic and foreign industrialists on the kind of material to be made so that it is really suited to local conditions in a country.
Manufacture of boats can be improved by paid refresher courses for local carpenters. Governments services could arrange the programme with the help of international organizations (shipbuilding experts). The new boats, more durable and better suited to local conditions, would be expected to be less expensive for fishermen in the long run. As far as possible, the use of local materials should be promoted.
4.2.3 Advice to Suppliers of Fishing Material
The real needs of fishermen should be explained to local merchants. Financial aid, e.g., by exemption from duties, should encourage importation of material better suited to local fisheries, although domestic or African products should be given precedence as far as possible.
4.2.4 Training of Fishermen and Extension Work for Disseminating Appropriate Fishing Techniques
As explained in Paragraph 4.1.1, extension work could be developed in community centres. They would provide special training for fishermen who would act as stimulators in disseminating knowledge and explaining the purposes of development projects. At any rate, extension workers should preferably be chosen among the fishermen themselves. They should enjoy some freedom of action in relation to the officers of fishery services.
4.2.5 The Use of Mass Media
Broadcasting can alert fishermen to development problems. Transistor wireless sets are usually to be found even in the remotest camps. They are very popular because they are often the only link with the outside world. But the best way of broadcasting information should be explored very carefully. It is not certain that didactic programmes in the manner of educational broadcasts are the ideal solution. A direct approach should perhaps be tested, with the fishermen themselves explaining their successes and failures in their dialects over the local radio.
Television may be used to create awareness among consumers in towns. Some projects fail because a novel product cannot be sold owing to the consumers' ignorance. In particular, this is true of the marketing of dried and salted fish in West Africa: housewives do not know how to desalt it.
In the near future, the portable television camera and small television set may be a major aid to the extension worker. However, he must be aware of the danger and limits of this technique. He must not offend local habits or traditions and upset the social structure too rapidly. But the extraordinary impact of photos in isolated places is well known.
