Aquaculture Experts seek enabling environment for sector’s growth

Some aquaculture experts have called on the Federal Government to create enabling environment for the sector’s growth and productivity.

The experts made the calls during an interview on Thursday in Lagos state. Aquaculture is the breeding, raising, and harvesting of fish, shellfish, and aquatic plants.

An Aquaculture Analyst, Mr Anthony Hameed, said it was paramount for the government to provide adequate facilities for fish farming to grow locally.

He, however, reiterated the need to identify the true farmers who should be beneficiaries of the government’s interventions.

“We need the government to continuously create an enabling environment for the aquaculture sector to thrive. They should provide facilities that will be targeted specifically for the growth and productivity of fish farmers.

“Government should take extra effort and identify the real fish farmers and not those who pose to be what they are not. Most times, we hear of interventions as provided by the government but it does not get to us; it lands in the coffers of political farmers.

“Just like the Anchor Borrowers Scheme was perfectly executed in the rice sector, if adopted in the aquaculture sector, it will be more beneficial to fish farmers.
“We need to be encouraged, the business has not been viable as it used to be,” the expert said.

“About six to eight years ago, we used to have profit margins of about 60 per cent to 70 per cent in aquaculture but now it is not the same. So many fish farmers have left the business due to their inability to break even. We also call for loan facilities to the real fish farmers.
“The government should come down to the farms and do a head count for the fish farmers, so as to have appropriate data for the real farmers,” Hameed said

On his part, Mr Okon Amah, an Aquaculture Statistician, said accessibility by fish farmers to fund was pivotal to the growth of the sector.

He also called for easy access to loans and funding to boost the sector’s production capacities.

“The aquaculture sector presently seeks an enabling environment, loans and interventions to enable it thrive. Most fish farmers seek funding, knowledge, raw materials and equipment to boost growth and productivity of their farms.

“The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) should also make accessibility of land to fish farmers a priority for the sector to grow. The bigger the land, the bigger the output of the fish farm,” Amah said.

NAN / Foluke Ibitomi