Ziad H

Ziad H. Shehadeh

Fishery Resources Division

European Inland Fisheries Commission. 1998. Report of the Symposium on Water for Sustainable InlandFisheries and Aquaculture. FAO Fisheries Report N°. 580, Suppl. Rome, FAO. 56p.

The document reports on the main discussions, conclusions and recommendations of the Symposium, which was held in Praia do Carvoeiro, Portugal on 23-26 June 1998, in concomitance with the Twentieth Session of the European Inland Fisheries Commission (EIFAC). (The main conclusions and recommendations of the Symposium are summarized elsewhere in this newsletter.) The report also incorporates abstracts of the contributions sumitted to the Symposium and the full addresses of participants.

Coche, A.G. 1998. Supporting aquaculture development in Africa: Research Network on Integration of Aquaculture and irrigation. CIFA Occasional Paper N°.23. Accra, FAO. 141p.

This is the report of a mission fielded in October-November 1997 to visit Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Zambia and Zimbabwe, previously identified as potential contributors to a research network on the integration of aquaculture and irrigation, including fishery enhancement in small water bodies. Available resources for aquaculture and irrigationresearch, as well as the development status of these

two sub-sectors, were identified and evaluated. Interest and willingness to participate in the network were ascertained.

The main findings were the following:

In general, resources are very limited except forinfrastructure in Ghana and Zambia, wherehuman resources are also expected to improvein the near future.

Government resources to support aquaculturedevelopment are rather limited, particularly inBurkina Faso, Mali and Zimbabwe. Althoughsome private initiatives exist in Mali and Ghana, they are particularly developed in Zambia. This contributes to make Zambia one of the main aquaculture producers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Currently, most SWB (small water bodies)fishery enhancement activities are privateinitiatives, either at village level, in Mali andGhana, or at farm level, in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Guidelines are now being finalized by ALCOMfor the rapid evaluation of SWB fisherypotential and for community-based enhan-cement/ management of SWB fish resources in southern African countries.

Several types of integration of aquaculture andirrigation have been tried in Mali and Ghana

on a relatively small scale. The Zambia SPFS (Special Programme on Food Security) is actively carrying out trials on small-scale fish farming integration in wetland areas.

• Large scale schemes with surface irrigation and full or partial water control are particularly developed in Mali, but also in Zambia and Zimbabwe, where more than 20 000 ha are available.

• The largest irrigation potential exists in Ghana. Good potential is also present in Mali and Zambia. The SPFS is well ahead in Zambia and has been initiated in the field in Burkina Faso. In Mali, Ghana and Zimbabwe, it is still in the preparatory phase.

The recommendations of the mission were as follows:

• National institutions to become involved in the African Research Network for the Integration of Aquaculture and Irrigation have been identified as follows:

Burkina Faso: Institut de Développement Rural

Mali: Institut d’Economie Rurale

Ghana: Water Research Institute

Zambia: Mount Makulu Regional Research Centre

• In Zimbabwe, the ALCOM Programme should take overall responsibility, both at regional SADC level and at national level, in cooperation with the Department of national Parks and Wildlife Management and AGRITEX.

• The new network should collaborate closely with existing networks, in particular ARID, FARMESA and SADC/FANR networks.

• Future actions should include the preparation of national syntheses and the organization of a seminar of irrigation and aquaculture specialists, to discuss the organization and research priorities of the network.

Johnson, G. and L. Verheust. 1998. Naming, typing, correcting and linking of the DCW inland water coverage for Africa. ALCOM Working Paper N°. 19. Harare. 27p.

This paper accompanies the digital dataset of inland water in Africa, extracted from the Digital Chart of the World. It describes the data and materials which were used, methods employed, results achieved and the lessons learnt from the exercise. The creation of the dataset was done in the framework of the FAO Fisheries activity "Spatial modeling for the assessment and management of inland fisheries". It was funded by the Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service, FAO, Rome, and executed by ALCOM in the context of work on a SADC Water Resource database.

Inland water polygons from the Digital Chart of the World for Africa were named, typed and corrected, then linked to two different water body databases. The output of the exercise is a corrected water body polygon file with two new identifiers which can be linked to a database file with names, types, comments and identifiers for the water bodies in the FAO Lakes and Rivers Fisheries database and the ALCOM Surface Water Body database. The dataset allows easy extraction of selected polygons from the master dataset.

For more information, or to obtain the latest digital watershed data, readers should contact ALCOM at:

MAILING ADDRESS:

Telephone: P.O. Box 3730 Harare, Zimbabwe

FAX: 263-4-792782

E-Mail: [email protected]

HOMEPAGE: http://www.zamnet.zm./zamnet/alcom/alcom.htm

Van der Mheen-Sluijer, J. 1998. Fish and water in Rural Communities. ALCOM Working Paper N°. 21. Harare. 112p.

The paper describes a tool which was developed to provide guidelines for assessing the role of ponds and small water bodies in rural communities in Africa. It examines, on the one hand, the resources households allocate to fish farming and/or fishing and, on the other, it shows how to analyze the importance of the outputs produced: fish as a source of animal protein and income, and stored water. It also explores the role of fishponds and small water bodies for households not engaged in fish farming or fishing. The paper gives a detailed description of the development of the questionnaires for each target group (fish farmer, fisher, non-fish farmer and non-fisher), and how the results can be analyzed using SPSS/PC+. It also includes a brief overview of which statistical procedures can be used for the kind of data generated by such a study.

Since the paper gives a detailed description of the most important steps involved in such a study, it can be used for the capacity building of local institutions that may implement similar studies in their country. And since it clearly spells out the procedures involved and their rationale, other users can make informed decisions on how to adapt the interview schedules and spreadsheets for monitoring or evaluating the importance of fish and water in their own environment.

For more information, or to obtain the disk containing the three questionnaires, the codebook and spreadsheets for data analysis, contact ALCOM at the address provided for the preceding publication.

Nilsson, H. 1998. Information channels in fish farming extension, Eastern Province, Zambia, and Manica Province, Mozambique. ALCOM Field Document N°. 41. Harare.

The document reports on the results of a study oninformation channels in fish farming extension,which was carried out in 1996. The aim was to assess

the effectiveness of the various agents and sources of information involved. Alternative agents of information were also investigated.

Government extension agents were perceived by farmers as the source of highest quality information. In some instances, this was confirmed by the study. Farmer-to-farmer extension was often of reasonable quality despite the negative perceptions of the farmers. However, fellow farmers did not transfer information on subjects like pond construction and feeding practices as well as other sources of information. On the other hand, fellow farmers were the most accessible extension agent and were used by many respondents for day-to-day exchange of information.

Farmer clubs and informal and social get-togethers among farmers were identified as potential fora for information exchange. Constraints and drawbacks faced by government agents and village–based extension agents were identified.

Wetengere, K. and H. van Herwaarden. 1998. Development of semi-intensive fish farming inMorogoro Region, Tanzania. ALCOM Working PaperN°. 22. Harare.

The report presents the results of the pilot project "Development of semi-intensive aquaculture for small scale farmers", that was executed by ALCOM in collaboration with the Fisheries Division of he Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in Mongoro region, Tanzania. The project started in 1993 with a duration of 3 years. The objective of the pilot project was to develop suitable semi-intensive fish farming techniques and extension packages for small-scale farmers and to incorporate these into the rural extension system.

The report describes the region, the extension approach used, and the various extension methods tested during the project. It analyses the results and proposes recommendations for the development of aquaculture in Tanzania.