Prof. Chukwuma Okereke Offor
Varsity don suggests ways of boosting commercial aquaculture in Nigeria
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
A Professor of Aquaculture Production Management says time has come to boost commercial aquaculture in Nigeria for greater economic benefits for farmers and the country.
The Aquaculture expert, Prof. Chukwuma Okereke Offor, who stated this while delivering the 56th Inaugural Lecture of Michael Okapara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, said lifting aquaculture to commercial level in Nigeria would be achieved by professionalizing the farming system, especially now that the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy has been established.
His lecture was titled: “Can the Black Box Syndrome explain The Neoteny in Nigeria Commercial Aquaculture,”
He also identified insufficient knowledge, dearth of infrastructure, among others, as factors responsible for the slow growth of commercial-scale aquaculture in Nigeria, disclosing that practitioners of aquaculture in the country were predominantly quacks.
He regretted that majority of aquaculture practitioners were not only predominantly quacks and not into commercial aquaculture but rather operating as subsistence farmers with hobby-level skill set and have insufficient knowledge of the factors at play. “Unfortunately, as it is, aquaculture practice is an all-comers affair,” he remarked.
According to him, the practitioners’ inability to distinguish and place themselves appropriately in the two approaches of aquaculture being practiced in the country, has serious impact on successful commercial culture because more often than not, “practitioners venture into commercial aquaculture, with hobby-level skill set.”
“What is worse, these enthusiasts soon set out “training” others, resulting in vicious cycle of perpetuation of mediocrity, with consequent high turn-over of “aquaculture enterprises,” he added
According to him, a Black Box is one whose contents are not known until fully unpacked, which refers to the ignorance of the environment by those in the sector about the practice of aquaculture, adding that this has been militating against commercial success of aquaculture in the country.
He explained that “Culture installations and cultured fish are often regarded as “black boxes;” the inputs being water, feeds, fertilizer and energy, and the outputs being fish, sediments and effluent waters.”
He maintained that “the unknowns in the practice of aquaculture were the main reasons for its low economic productivity.
“This is because crucial information like interaction between feeds, environmental conditions, and growth rate; and economically optimal harvest weight, among others, are hidden in the black box, manipulation of which is crucial to commercial success of aquaculture in environments with similar prevailing socio-economic characteristics.”
The Lecturer also described Neoteny, in the context of commercial/artisanal aquaculture in Nigeria, as “the presence of teething problems at a time it should be at an advanced stage of development.”
Going down memory lane, he told his massive audience that the first farm in Nigeria was established more than 70 years ago. “Despite the length of time, aquaculture practice, infrastructure and prospects resemble those of an industry in its infancy,” he said.
He listed key drivers of the factors responsible for the slow growth of commercial aquaculture to include (neotenous condition) as: absence of/outdated policy framework guiding the sector, insufficient skilled workforce, insecurity; and unfavourable macro-, and micro-economic factors affecting cost of input like feed (fish meal still has to be imported) as well as low consumer purchasing power. “These drivers maintained their grip on development of aquaculture sector up to 1992, necessitating the splitting of the site of my Ph.D,” as he narrated how he was forced to relocate abroad to complete his doctoral degree because of lack of infrastructure in Nigeria.
“Unfortunately, 21 years later, a post-graduate student left my department to a university abroad for basically for the same reason that I did in 1992.
“These drivers have become so pervasive that their effects have been accepted as the norm locally, negatively impacting prospects of commercial aquaculture,” he lamented.
He further noted that the dearth of infrastructure was impeding provision of municipal services which is critical to successful commercial aquaculture.
“Failure in provision of municipal services results in sub-optimal water supply, electricity, etc, with negative consequences on grow-out. Because of poor electricity supply, standard operating procedure in most local fish farms excludes sufficient aeration. Yet dissolved oxygen level is one of the key factors affecting fish welfare.
“Standard operating procedures in most local farms also exclude adequate water exchange for evacuation of wastes and maintenance of physic-chemical parameters within the optimal range, due to insufficiency in municipal supplies.
“Insufficient water supply leads to deterioration of water quality. When the farmer supplies own water, water cost constitutes the highest percentage of production cost, outranking feed cost, during intensive indoor culture,” he enlightened.
He suggested that with the increasing complexity associated with commercialization, information in the black box, which are unknown to the people, should be unpacked because it is the basis for manipulations essential to development of (alternative) culture techniques necessary to ensure economic success in financially challenged environment like Nigeria.
Though he noted that aquaculture has become a highly popular activity, almost approaching “mass appeal,” but “the participating masses are populated with well-intentioned enthusiasts, albeit with hobby-level skill set.
However, he advised that “government should not miss the opportunity created by this mass appeal, to promote commercial aquaculture, and mediating the acquisition of knowledge that is sine qua non for profitable commercial culture, the lack of which knowledge portends grave danger.”
“The danger is this: the attractiveness of the biology of aquaculture frequently lures the enthusiast to scale up production with hobby-level knowledge, in the hope that this enthusiasm will translate to successful commercial culture. This is fantasy,” he cautioned.
A recent forecast, he said, had warned that between 2020 and 2030, Nigeria’s aquaculture production needs to grow 12 percent a year, to cover the 518, 229 tonnes extra demand driven by population growth only, and 24 percent a year, to cover the 1, 996, 096 metric tonnes of extra demand driven both by the population growth and higher preference. He advised that only embarking on commercial production could help achieve this.
Prof. Offor therefore proposed establishment of aquaculture parks in Abia State, in particular, as a scaled-up version of the idea of Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture IAA). He explained that aquaculture park was different from aquaculture estates in the important respect, essentially, scaled-up IAA enterprises, with poultry production and crop production as components.
“The idea is to use fish effluents as input into production of crops that could be used as feed for fish or poultry. Soyabeans can be grown and above-average yields obtained in a certain, brief climatological window. Rather than direct consumption as is presently done, greater value can be added to animal offal by processing as is the case in Asian countries, to provide animal protein for use in fish feeding,” he said
The Don added that: “The clustering of fish farms will enable effective distribution of input, shared facilities and shared costs, resulting in reduction in cost of fish production. Because waste from fish culture will be used as input into other components, these wastes will no longer constitute environmental hazards and social disharmony, as is presently the case.
“This park will be for farms producing on a commercial scale. A different accommodation can be found, for subsistence farmers.” He said the parks would equally enhance municipal services.
Suggesting ways to address the Black Box syndrome, the Professor said that the box should be “rendered less opaque” by decentralizing aquaculture training and research facilities,” describing the idea of centralized location of aquaculture training and research facilities as “outdated.”
He further proposed that “with the profusion of small-scale aquaculture enterprises, there is need to establish equivalents of the African Regional Aquaculture Centre, at least, at the geographical zone, for ease of access to training and rapid dissemination of information (extension), while adequate funding should be provided for aquaculture research.
According to the Lecturer, to address Neoteny, government needs to urgently review and update the Nigeria Aquaculture Strategy (2008), to give sectoral directional development so aquaculture play its role in national economic development, including exploiting opportunities presented by the Blue Economy, under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy.
He also called for adoption of economic policies that would result in reversal of the declining purchasing power of consumers and high cost of feed/feed ingredient so aquaculture products are affordable instead of being luxury food; stabilizing prices of ingredients used in feed formulation through enhanced storage capacity and stability in Naira exchange rate, as well as professionalizing the aquaculture sector for greater economic benefits.
He prayed that the Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON) which has been trying to charter the practice of aquaculture for years now may succeed to enhance standardization
