Fish farming in Tanzania dates back to around 19501. The number of fish ponds has varied throughout the years. In 1964, there were 8,000 ponds, but the number went down to 1,670 ponds in 1975 and 748 in 1985, because of declining extension effort. From the late 1980s, increased effort from Fisheries Officers and development projects raised the number of fish ponds to 8,611 in 19922.
The most developed fish farming regions are situated in Arusha, Mbeya, Iringa and Ruvuma. Ruvuma Region alone hosts more than 50% of the country's fish ponds. While there is tremendous potential for expanding the pond area in the country, another challenge lies in developing fish farming to a higher level of intensity. By implementing better management practices, small-scale fish farmers can increase the yield of their pond and possibly raise the income and nutritional level of some or all members of their household.
Little work has been carried out so far to develop extension methodologies for semi-intensive fish farming appropriate to conditions found in Tanzania. A collaborative project was therefore formulated between the Fisheries Division, Ministry of Tourism, Natural Resources and Environment; Sokoine University of Agriculture; and ALCOM (Aquaculture for Local Community Development Programme, GCP/INT/555/SWE.) The project, “Development of semi-intensive aquaculture,” has as its development objective “economically viable semi-intensive aquaculture practised in Tanzania”. The immediate objective is to investigate and test the feasibility of semi-intensive aquaculture in selected regions of Tanzania. A number of outputs were identified, the first being a report on the reasons why farmers take up semi-intensive fish farming and the factors that make this activity viable. The findings of the study are intended to assist the project to identify farmers to carry out on-farm trials and develop semi-intensive aquaculture extension packages.
The present report investigates socio-economic factors affecting the adoption and viability of semi-intensive aquaculture. It is based on a study carried out by an Economic Researcher (national consultant) and an ALCOM Socio-economist (APO) during August – September, 1993 in selected villages of Ruvuma and Mbeya Regions.
Ruvuma and Mbeya regions in the southern and south western parts of the country were selected for the study since these are among the most developed regions in terms of the number of fish farmers. There are 2040 and 690 active fish farmers respectively in the two regions3.
1 Mafwenga (1993). In this report, however, one author says fish farming started as early as 1927.
3 Seki and Maly (1993) and Msuya (1992).
For the purpose of the study, semi-intensive fish farming was defined as a fish farming practice where feeding is carried out at least two times per week and fertilizing once per week. Such a definition was chosen following consultation with aquaculture literature and technical experts familiar with the region. Other indicators such as stocking density, production level and the disposal of the product were not considered suitable since these are not necessarily unique to semi-intensive fish farming. Besides, fingerlings may become unavailable and the fish population may get depleted, rendering such management indicators useless. Further, feeding and fertilizing were chosen as indicators of the intensity level as these parameters are more operational than others. This definition is not universal; it can, however, be adopted as a guideline in identifying those fish farmers who manage more intensively than others.
Map 1. Tanzania and the selected regions and villages.
In practice, however, few farmers in the study area met this definition. The fish farmers selected for the study were those farmers who, in relation to other fish farmers in the area, were considered by informants as the better fish farmers.
