THE POTENTIALS OF AQUACULTURE DEVELOPMENT IN FISHING COMMUNITIES
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Aquaculture continues to grow rapidly every day, and then became bigger and bigger industry every year. So understanding the basic part behind aquatic production facilities is of increasing importance for all those working in this industry. Aquaculture requires knowledge and skills of the many general aspects of production such as spawning, production of feeds etc (Anderson, 2004). Fisheries constitute an important sector in Nigerian agriculture, providing valuable food and employment to millions and also serving as a source of livelihoods mainly for women in coastal communities, in view of the ever-increasing importance of fish as a source of high quality animal protein in Nigeria (Nwuba et al., 2009).
Coastal fisheries are important and contributed at least 40 percent of fish production from all sources in Nigeria between 1995 and 2008 (FAO, 2010). According to the Fisheries Society of Nigeria, small scale fisheries provide more than 82 percent of the domestic fish supply, giving livelihoods to one million fishermen and up to 5.8 million fisher folks in the secondary sector comprising processing, preservation, marketing and distribution. Considering Nigeria‘s enormous water resources, human capital and other natural endowments, the Federal Department of Fisheries (FDF) estimated fish production of over 1.7mmt comprising 201,300mt from inshore (brackish and coastal fisheries), 33,900mt (offshore fisheries), 288,200 (inland fisheries) and 1180215mt (aquaculture).
Nigeria is blessed with numerous water bodies ranging from the marine (Atlantic Ocean), through the brackish waters (deltaic rivers and estuaries) to inland freshwaters (rivers, streams and lakes). Despite these available resources, recent trends have shown decline in the Nigerian capture fisheries and this calls for development of aquaculture especially in fishing communities as they possess the potentials.
Aquaculture is said to be the rational rearing of aquatic organism (fish, shrimp, prawns, water snails) in an enclosed and fairly shallow body of water where all its life processes can be controlled. It is an important sector for the nation’s economic development, at a time when government is seeking for ways to diversify the economy, from being purely oil based. Aquaculture according to Ayinla (2012) is the fastest growing food producing industry in the world. He stated that global aquaculture production has quadrupled over the past twenty years and that aquaculture production is likely to double in the next fifteen years, as a result of wild fisheries approaching their biological limits and the world demand for cultured fish continuing to increase. Various types of