Mombasa, Kenya, 20–22 September 2005
John Moehl1, Matthias Halwart2 and Rohana P. Subasinghe3
The FAO Expert Workshop on Review and Analysis of the Aquaculture Sector in Africa was held in Mombasa, Kenya, from 20–22 September 2005. The Workshop was attended by 35 participants, including participants from 15 countries in the Africa Region (Cameroon, Congo-Brazaville, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozzambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia) and aimed to: (a) follow-up on the 1999 FAO Africa Regional Aquaculture Review, assess progress made in developing the aquaculture sector and recommend steps/action to stimulate further growth; and (b) obtain relevant information from the region towards compiling two documents, as a request by the Committee on Fisheries Sub-Committee on Aquaculture (COFI-AQ): (i) Review of trends in global aquaculture development -2005, and (ii) Prospective analysis of future aquaculture development, both will be presented to the Third Session of the COFI-AQ to be held in India in September 2006.
The conclusions of the workshop could be summarized as follows:
‘Aquaculture has made considerable progress in the Africa Region since 1999. This progress is seen in production increases as well as growing investment in aquaculture. These events are stimulated by rising prices for aquatic products combined with more friendly investment environments. Over this period, there has been a noteworthy improvement in capacity of public institutions, increased awareness by the private sector, more favourable assessments by lenders, improved seed availability and quality and more ready access to information; although, all these factors are still far from optimal and require continued strengthening. Positive demonstrations and experiences need to be shared and multiplied. At the intra-regional level, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Regional Economic Communities (RECs) or other vehicles may be efficient tools for the expanded and enhanced sharing and adoption of “what works”. But, at the national level, extension remains a serious debacle with which to deal; establishing means and methods to have effective and sustainable extension and outreach a recurring quandary. There may be economies of scale to address some issues such as research and training/education at the regional or sub-regional level. There are also economies of scale to develop stronger and more resilient links with sister national institutions and agencies such as statistics, water, environment, etc. It has been demonstrated that all of these aspects of aquaculture development can be, and should be satisfactorily addressed to in the process of elaborating national aquaculture development strategies’.
1 John Moehl
FAO Regional Office for Africa
P.O. Box 1628, Accra, Ghana
2 Matthias Halwart
Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service,
FAO Fisheries Department, Rome
3 Rohana P. Subasinghe
Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service,
FAO Fisheries Department, Rome
