9. The Secretariat presented Document FI:SCA/2001/2 outlining the definition of commercial aquaculture as a business-oriented rearing of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and seaweed and reasons for its promotion in the African region. This was followed by a review of the requirements for successful commercial aquaculture enterprises in light of the Region’s assets. It was stated that input constraints were a major bottleneck to the development of commercial aquaculture including the availability of feed, capital, and seed.
10. The Consultation noted that the Region possessed a high potential for commercial aquaculture development. Reliable supplies of feed, capital, and seed were principal limiting inputs for the development of commercial aquaculture. A number of delegates intervened concerning commercial aquaculture activities past and present. It was pointed out that difficulties were encountered in some instances in obtaining reliable supplies of good quality local feed. Therefore, countries were required to import feed or feed ingredients such as vitamins and minerals at relatively high cost which increased production costs to a non-competitive level.
11. Some delegates reported that their countries were able to support an aquafeed industry, while other delegates reported that when fish feed production relied on feed industries originally intended for other animal husbandries such as chicken or rabbit farming, they were susceptible to economic volatilities in these sub-sectors. There was a general consensus that all countries could greatly benefit from capacity building in fish feed technology and fish nutrition.
12. It was stated that the development of commercial aquaculture enterprises was intrinsically linked to the health of the overall commercial agricultural sector, weaknesses in the latter making developments in the former difficult.
13. The Consultation observed that commercial aquaculture was a complex, high cost industry which requires an integrated approach for its development. A key question influencing this development was how to reduce the cost of production when input costs were high.
14. The Consultation identified the following strategies which could be adopted by governments to overcome the major constraints encountered by the sector at present:
15. The Consultation stressed that FAO should aim at strengthening its role in capacity building, regional collaboration and information exchange, and overall promotion of the development of commercial aquaculture in Africa South of the Sahara and assist countries in mobilising resources to embark on these ventures.
