Challenges of aquaculture research and development

 Limited human resource (experienced and skilled aquaculture professionals)

 Limited fish culture technologies (improved fish seed and quality fish feed, improved
management practice)
 Lack of fish seed multiplication hatchery (private and government)
 Less involvement of the private sector (probably due to less incentive for the sub-
sector)
 Poor fishery extension service and
 Less attention given to the aquaculture sub-sector
 Lack of adequate awareness and knowledge of fish and Aquaculture
 Gender Bias Towards Aquaculture
 Poor food culture of the urban population residing away from water bodies

The challenges for aquaculture research and development can be grouped into four as
Institutional, Technological, Economic and Social. From a review of experiences in pilot
project areas of NFALRC, the following diagram was obtained summarizing the
challenges to aquaculture research and development

INSTITUTIONAL
Lack of extension support and training
Absence of relevant expertise on aquaculture
Limited research, information and institutional capacity in the area
Absence of organizational structure to support aquaculture

ECONOMIC
Absence of effective fish feed and feed ingredients
Lack of fish seeds (fingerling supply)
Absence
GENDER, AWARENESS, ATTITUDE AND ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF AQUACULTURE of year round water supply for most smallholde
fish strain of Nile Tilapia for pond culture Absence of a well organized market linkage, structure and valu
and effective fish feed to help the fish grow; especially for Nile Tilapia Lack of funding (public finance)
High cost of inputs for aquaculture development

SOCIAL
Lack of Adequate awareness about fish, or aquaculture among the target community
Limited involvement of the private sector in the business
Gender bias towards the activity
 3. Intervention options
Several countries have made enormous success in advancing the aquaculture sector. Egypt for
example has produced over 1.5 million tonnes of fish from aquaculture in 2018 (FAO, 2020).
Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania also devised different mechanisms to develop aquaculture in their
countries. Aquaculture stimulus package in Kenya in 2009; Africa fish, Aqua-Spark Fish for
good investment facility and the Farm Africa concepts of aqua shops in Kenya were some of the
approaches in those countries. Therefore, to develop aquaculture in Ethiopia there has to be
strong and effective cooperation system among different partners such as higher learning
institutions, research institutes, the private sector and the government. Unless there are skilled
and experienced human resources, timely technology adoption and generation, delivery of
aquaculture inputs particularly quality fish feeds and seeds and good policies and strategies with
effective implementation, aquaculture development will be rather theoretical than actual
practices. The development wing should establish functional extension system for fisheries &
aquaculture that links the research institutions with the development actors.
From the research institutes point of view the research should focus on the following major
areas:
 Generating fish seed and feed for small, medium scale and commercial aquaculture
 Diversify culture organisms (fin and shell fish, crustaceans, micro algae)
 Adapting and demonstrating fish culture technologies
 Develop aquaculture stimulus package
 Human and institutional capacity building (establish state of the art training and research
center)
 Developing research based and fortified dish (recipe) for effective consumption of fish
that supports (considers) the available national fish supply both in quality and quantity.
 Developing and adapting innovative ways of consuming fish to enhance more demand
and facilitate the supply chain.
 Supporting farmers to become self sustained suppliers of fish fingerlings and complement
the current demand of fingerlings directed to research centers
 Adapt food systems approach to help reduce post harvest loss and support intervention of
stakeholders