A consensus Statement by Delegates to the FAO/WorldFish Centre Workshop on Small-scale Aquaculture held in Limbé, Cameroon, 23-26 March 2004
Aquaculture development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is at a crossroads. Burgeoning population growth and declining natural sources of fish make it imperative that aquaculture contributes as substantially to continental fish supply as possible. The region is the only one in the world where per capita fish consumption is declining and is project to decline further. Reasons for this situation include: civil conflict, weak management structures, low levels of investment in rural economies and lack of economic growth. At the same time, however, new opportunities exist that brighten the prospects for aquaculture development.
In many countries, policies of privatization and decentralization provide incentives for increased investments in the sector from private and public sources as domestic markets, especially in urban areas, become more accessible and trade expands. At the global level, the ever-growing demand for fish has created opportunities for export-oriented aquaculture production. The challenge today is to make use of these opportunities for the sustainable development of aquaculture in the region. There is a need for a type of development that contributes to national food security and poverty reduction objectives and pays attention to the scope for expansion that the nature resource base allows.
Sub-Saharan Africa must, therefore, make a choice, either for "business as usual" and things continue as they are, and people live with the dire consequences, or it is "time to make hard choices", institute relevant policies and strategies, bring aquaculture into the formal cash economy and stem the tide that is undermining aquaculture’s future. To this effect, many governments, cooperating partners as well as bilateral and multilateral development agencies are developing a new strategy for aquaculture development in sub-Saharan Africa.
The meeting recognized a number of constraints to the development of aquaculture, which includes seed and feed production, as well as inefficient extension and outreach. The delegates to the workshop further acknowledge that:
Support to a knowledge development and delivery structure to provide essential assistance for aquaculture from government and those providing external aide requires convincing demonstrations of impact on national development priorities such as poverty reduction, food security, nutrition, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and sustainable environmental management.
Institutional stability and durability will be achieved through structures that rely first and foremost on private sector investments as well as on output-oriented and accountable use of public revenue which aims at enhancing sustainable development of aquaculture.
While appreciating the need to address the three major constraints identified (seed, feed, extension), the meeting called upon the governments and cooperating partners as well as research agencies to focus on the likely development impact of investment in these areas. In order to ensure optimum impact of the three development strategies, there is a need to examine other areas, such as market development, access to capital and other policy issues that might be deemed relevant and equally important.
Furthermore, participants propose that SSA Governments should seek to develop Public Private Partnerships within the growing number of aquaculture enterprises, by creating cost-effective financial and institutional arrangements that can compliment government and donor resources to deliver a limited number of critical research, advisory and technological services to high-potential farmers.
Participants further pronounced that the approach to national aquaculture development, based upon the Cameroonian Strategic Framework for Aquaculture development addresses the major constraints to expansion of the subsector in the region, facilitates the necessary public/private and public/civil society linkages as well as proposes mechanisms to maximize returns to the investment of both public and private sector resources.
While endorsing this approach as an appropriate tool to foster aquaculture development, participants noted that such strategic approaches can only achieve their expected goals when efforts make use of existing national strategies, master plans and investment plans for aquaculture development in order to harmonize, to build synergies and to eliminate redundancies. These efforts involve national partners and stakeholders, but also aquaculture producers, support services, local authorities and investors from the public and civil society sectors, cooperating partners (donors) as well as international and multilateral organizations.
The meeting envisages that aquaculture in SSA will grow into an important pillar of development in many areas in the region. It will be able to provide high quality food for rural and urban consumers, generate employment and general commercial activities in otherwise impoverished local economies, and contribute to national wealth through increased revenue from markets and trade. In order to achieve this vision, the countries in the region need to work together to increase their knowledge base, exchange best practice experiences and speak with one voice in the global marketplace.
