The presentation was part of the Brussels Development Briefing on the topic of fish-farming, organized by the Technical Centre for Agriculture (CTA), the European Commission, and the African, Carribean, and Pacific (ACP) Secretariat on 3rd of July 2013 in Brussels. More on: http://brusselsbriefings.net/

1. Brussels Development Briefing n.32
Fish-farming the new driver of the blue
economy?
3rd July 2013
http://brusselsbriefings.net
Overview of the significance of the fish-
farming sector: challenges and
opportunities.
David Little, University of Stirling

2. EU FP7 Funded Project No. 222889 (2009-2013)
Overview of the significance of the
fish-farming sector: challenges and
opportunities
African, Caribbean and Pacific -ACP- countries
David Little
Institute of Aquaculture
University of Stirling

3. Farming in water
Photo Trevor Telfer
Photo Andrew Shinn

4. CTAs agenda
• CTA is committed to sustainable
development, increasing prosperity and
improving the wellbeing of agricultural and
rural populations in ACP countries in a cost-
effective and environmentally friendly manner
• Small-holders, sustainable intensification

5. Relative contribution of aquaculture and
capture fisheries to food fish consumption
Capture
Aquaculture
FAO, 2012

6. Overview of global fisheries, including aquaculture
http://www.unep.org/dewa/vitalwater/jpg/0314-
fishcatch-EN.jpg

7. Fish consumption
in terms of protein
http://www.unep.org/dewa/vitalwater/articl
e176.html

8. Production intensity
Modified from FAO, 2012Mean data:2008-2010

9. Contributions to the economy
Modified from FAO, 2012Mean data:2008-2010

10. Sector growth
Modified from FAO, 2012Mean data:2008-2010 compared to 2003-2005

11. Rapid transformation
• From domestic demand
to global trade
• Led by shrimp but now
being followed by white
fish species, pangasius
and tilapia
• Exotic or local species?
Source FAO, 2010, modified by Zhang et al, 2012
Shrimp and tilapia in China

12. Export or local?
Belton et al, 2011

13. Seafood –Number 1 exported
commodity from developing countries
FAO, 2012

14. A story of cities and deltas…
• Rapid growth of urban settlement
• Increasing demand for animal source foods
• Comparative change to aquatic food as a
commodity………..
• Transformation of land and water use on
deltas towards value-added products
• Growth in national, regional and international
trade

15. ..from production to consumption

16. Urbanisation
PHOTO. P.EDWARDS
Aquaculture has often
developed and been sustained
nearer high centres of
population…..

17. Urban aquaculture -Africa
Clarias, Abuja,Nigeria
Photo AtandeTunde
Tilapia, Lake Volta, Ghana
Photo Will Leschen

18. Aquaculture development or
aquaculture for development
Belton and Little, 2011

19. Development and change
• Immanent: on-going, undirected
• Interventionist: intentional, externally inserted
• Returns to ‘small-scale’ typically less than 10-15% of
household income
• But often multiple, complex benefits
– -more than 70% of farming families identified more than ten benefits
of rice-fish in NW Bangladesh (Haque et al, 2010)
• Incremental rather than transformational
• Complexity of social structure and market incentives
• Rapid uptake of commercial aquaculture by
entrepreneurs rather than farmers

20. Does size matter- ‘small-scale’ and
poverty
Belton, Haque and Little, 2012

21. Commodity aquaculture
• ‘Small-scale’ as a term is often misleading and
generally not comparable to a small-holder
producing a staple crop
• Maybe many benefits elsewhere in the value
chain
• Commodity-orientated aquaculture is not
always intensive

22. Can export be compatible with local
food security?
Extensive ‘free-range’ shrimp ponds in Southwest Bangladesh

23. Local food chains and employment
• Income from extensive
‘shrimp’ ponds in
southeast Bangladesh
less than half of income
from shrimp
• Employment gains for
the poorest groups

24. Local fish for local people
Photo:Susan Thompson–
Inconsistent quality seed and
feed often undermine
sustainability post-intervention

25. Cage aquaculture
Cage farming in Ghana
• Crystal lakes-
overseas investm
• Local markets
• Site limitations

26. Limited freshwater sites
• Cages Lake Victoria
Uganda
• Access to
sites, exclusion of other
users?
Photo Will Leschen

27. Challenges in attaining positive
livelihood impacts
• Aquatic animals in the diet-coastal, lake or delta
living people
• Markets-urbanisation, export (not just the West!)
• Seed and hatchery
• Feed and nutrient management
• Markets
• Governance
• ….and broader development
• Benefits not as producers but elsewhere in the
value chain (employment, consumption)

28. ‘Local’ international markets
• Regional trade within
Asia and between Asia
and elsewhere is
growing faster than
conventional South-
North trade
• Traditional trade
between African states
in dried, smoked fish

29. Input costs, output value
FAO, 2012

30. Jamaica
• Beginning in the 1940s
• by the late 1990s,
>500ha, 100 farms
• >3000MT - 85% one
company
• significant exports
Photo Janielle Wallace

31. 2007-8
• Loss of export markets
• Focus on domestic but lack of competitiveness
also
• Post Hurricane damage interruptions in fry supply
• Gradual contraction ; change from intensive to
semi-intensive
– Local price $4.50/ lb
– Imported $2.10/ lb
– Failure of ‘eat local tilapia’ campaign

32. Seed and feed
Broodfish selection, Son hatchery
Uganda
Extruded feeds in Ghana, Raanan
Feeds Photo Will Leschen

33. …not just fish and shellfish
• Womens’ cooperative
producing seaweed in
Tanzania

34. Linking Asia and Africa

35. Examples of new projects
• Development of insect larvae production to
support high quality feed ingredients for fish
and livestock production and off-set costs of
sanitary waste disposal (Ghana)
• Fisheries and aquaculture value chain
development in Malawi and Uganda
• Developing African Aquaculture Networks
Towards Sustainable Innovation

36. SARNISSA-networking
Visit www.sarnissa.org and sign up now

37. Thanks
• CTA for the invitation
• Will Leschen for African photographs
• Neil Handisyde for graphics
• Colleagues on the Sustaining Ethical
Aquaculture Trade project
• www.seatglobal.eu
• Contact me on dcl1@stir.ac.uk