NFFB to Introduce Marine Fish Farming®

Daily Guide 14/10/10
By Emmanuel Kubi

THE PRESIDENT of the National Fish Farmers Brigade, Rev. Prince Dugah has expressed the need to extend fresh water fish farming to the marines in order to realize its full potentials for wealth creation and also meet the nation’s fish needs.
According to him, fish farming has over the years remained a good profit making venture because of its high demand driven nature adding “Ghanaians consume about 23kg per annum which is far above the world estimate of 15kg per annum.”

This indicates a higher demand for fish products in Ghana but one wonders whether the nation has been able to meet its fish requirements.
This, Mr. Dugah said leaves much to be desired taking into consideration the importance of the industry to the economy and the nutritional needs of the people.
“Fish is providing the people with about 60% of their protein needs and every effort to develop the industry and sustain it as a conduit to poverty alleviation would be a welcome idea,” he said.
Mr. Dugah made during a media interaction at the Trade Fair Centre over the weekend ahead of the second Agric Show being organized by FAGRO.
According to him, Ghana needs 880,000 tons of fish to meet its annual demand yet produces a little over 420,000 tons from marine, inland fishing and fish farmers “leaving a whopping deficit of 460,000 tons. This is a gap we must work hard to close as a matter of urgency.”
Valid records indicate that Ghana imported over $230 million worth of fish in 2007 alone.
He spoke about the NFFB’s dream of venturing into marine fish farming considering species like ‘kpanla,’ ‘amani’ and others that can do well under captivity.
“This is a challenge to our research institutions to help develop technology building cargoes on the sea to kick start the program started.”
He said though fish farming is capital intensive, a joint national crusade toward clearing the fish deficit by 2015 can be feasible.