ANNEX 3
REPORT ON THE SHRIMP CULTURE COMPONENT OF THE FISHERIES FORMULATION MISSION TO MOZAMBIQUE

BACKGROUND

The Fisheries Formulation Mission was fielded to assist the Government of Mozambique in the formulation of full project documents for submission to likely donors of project proposals identified during the programming mission TCP/MOZ/4506. The projects are:

• Fishery training, quality control and development

• Support to the development of small scale fisheries

• Development of tuna and great pelagic fishing

• Pilot shrimp culture project

The Mission was composed of the following consultants:

• M. Giudicelli, Fishery Generalist/Team Leader

• P. Howgate, Quality Control Expert

• W. Yap, Shrimp Culture Expert

The shrimp culture expert was specifically charged for the formulation of the project of his competence, i.e., the pilot coastal shrimp culture project.

Schedule

General findings

Shrimp is now Mozambique's most important export displacing the traditional dominance of cashew nuts. The latest figure (1984) shows shrimp to constitute 28.8 percent of Mozambique's foreign trade earnings. This dominance is not due to an increase in export volume nor to a rise in the export value. There is in fact a slight decrease in both the volume exported and the average price obtained during the last five years and the present dominance of shrimp as an export comodity is rather due to a general drop in total export earnings (Table 1).

It appears that the continuing unrest in the country has greatly affected the production and/or movement of all other traditional exportable goods resulting in the drop of export revenues. The unrest appears not to have affected shrimp production.

The interest of the Government to increase the shrimp production is therefore understandable. However, all of the present production comes from capture fisheries and catch volume appears to have stabilized during the last five years (Table 2). The general consensus is that Mozambique is already approaching or already reached the maximum sustainable yield for shrimp.

The only way to increase shrimp production is to introduce shrimp farming as many countries in Asia as well as in South America have done. Along this line Mozambique has good potential. It has some 850 000 ha of tidal swamps of which 680 000 ha are covered with mangrove forest and 170 000 ha are unvegetated flats. This means Mozambique has 170 000 ha of potential area that can be developed into coastal ponds without destroying its mangrove forests which could and should be allowed to remain as natural nursery grounds for various marine organisms including shrimps.

Another advantage of Mozambique is the existence of large areas of operational saltworks. Exact statistics on the saltworks distribution and hectarage were still being obtained at the time of the consultant's departure from Maputo, but it is believed to be in excess of 100 000 ha nationwide. About ten to fifteen percent of the total area of saltworks generally consist of reservoirs where new saltwater is constantly pumped in. These represent ready-made infrastructures for extensive shrimp farming. The normal saltmaking operation need not be affected and any additional input, besides the shrimp fry, will be minimal. This would consist most likely in provision of screens at the inlet and outlets to prevent extraneous species from entering and shrimp stock from escaping. The consultant visited the reservoir of the saltworks at Matola which appears to be already naturally productive as evidenced by the presence of razor clams on the pond bottom as well as large shrimps, according to the people employed there. Thus the saltworks offer the possibility of immediate application of the results of the pilot farm operations without any capital investment involved.

One handicap that Mozambique has is lack of tradition for coastal aquaculture and a complete lack of skilled manpower for aquaculture development operations. It is precisely this handicap which the proposed project seeks to overcome through the establishment of a pilot coastal shrimp farm.

Findings on the pilot farm site

The Aquaculture Unit of the Instituto de Investigacao Pesqueira (IIP) has found an abandoned saltworks at Costa do Sol at about 6 km of good road from Maputo city centre (Fig. 1). This site is within the same tract of swampland which Schmidt and Padlan selected in 1982 as a site for a pilot coastal aquaculture development project. The saltworks was reportedly abandoned only in 1984.

Being a developed area, the selected site is already clear and the ground already devoid of any vegetation or remnants thereof such as roots and tree stumps. This will greatly facilitate development. The soil is silty loam in the upper 5 to 10 cm layer but changes to clay-loam beneath. The saltworks' pumphouse is still intact and the electrically driven centrifugal pump appears to be still in running condition. It draws energy from the nearby power line. Such abandoned property reportedly reverts back to the Government so that acquisition and utilization would not be a problem according to Mr. F. Loforte, the head of the aquaculture unit of IIP.

Government Implementing Agency

The Secretariat of State for Fisheries through the LIP will implement the proposed project. The IIP's Aquaculture Unit at present operates a pilot mussel farm. It is also involved in extensive freshwater tilapia culture in rural areas.

Like all other agencies in the 11-year old Government, the IIP appears to be greatly understaffed. They seem though to make up for this by their dedication and intensity of purpose. They are also very much aware of this shortcoming and were emphatic that the proposed project be simple in concept and of a scale that would be manageable by them with their limited manpower.

Brief resume of the proposal prepared

The proposal calls for the development of a ten-hectare area within the abandoned saltworks into a system of nursery and grow-out ponds served by separate supply and drain canals. These shall be used to try out and adapt low-input shrimp culture technology which would depend on natural pond productivity rather than artificial or extraneous feed materials. The most appropriate method that could be adapted is the one used by the present FAO-UNDP Coastal Aquaculture Development Project in Kenya (Project KEN/80/018). The most logical species to use would be Penaeus indicus, the fry of which can be collected from Mozambican waters.

The proposed project shall be engaged in four major activites: shrimp farming trials at the pilot farm, shrimp fry stocking in saltworks reservoirs; national fry resource survey; and site selection for future shrimp farms within the Maputo Bay area. The project will require the services of a shrimp culturist during the entire 30-month duration of the project; an aquaculture engineer during the initial 6-month development period; a pond ecologist for three months during the second year and an investment analyst for one month during the last six months of the project when enough results should have been obtained to serve as data base for an investment programme in shrimp culture in Mozambique. In addition, unspecified consultants shall be called upon for limited duration during the 30 month period as the need arises.

Immediate recommendation

There seems to be a general consensus among all the people involved both on the Government and UNDP/FAO side that the pilot shrimp culture project has a very high likelihood of being approved. It is therefore, strongly recommended that the search for candidates for the shrimp culturist and aquaculture engineer be initiated now so as to reduce the time gap between project approval and implementation. The terms of reference for these two experts are contained in the project proposal (Annex 4).

TABLE 1.

CONTRIBUTION OF SHRIMP EXPORT TO TOTAL
FOREIGN TRADE INCOME,
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF MOZAMBIQUE,
1978 – 1984

(1) Source: World Bank Report No. 5610 MOZ/June 6, 1986

TABLE 2.

SHRIMP CATCH AND EXPORT STATISTICS,

MOZAMBIQUE 1980 – 1984

(1) Catch of the entire fleet, including licensed foreign boats

(2) Catch of the national and joint venture fleets

Source: World Bank Report No. 5610 - MOZ/June 6, 1986 and Secretariat of State for Fisheries Statistics.