Encourage outgrower fishing ...farmers, fishermen association urges govt

THE Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen (GNAFF) has recommended to the government to encourage the establishment of outgrower fish farming across the country to supplement the production of fish in the country, in view of the serious depletion of the country’s fish stock by pair trawlers.
Mr Charles K. Annan, the Executive Secretary of GNAFF, told the Daily Graphic that the fishing stocks of Ghana, both marine and freshwater, were reducing at an unprecedented rate because of year-long bad practice.
He said as the country’s fish stock continued to dwindle with corresponding low income for fishermen there was the need for an alternative approach to both marine and freshwater fishing.
He said apart from the practice of pair trawling by foreign vessels, which he said was now out of hand, the pressure being exerted by local fishermen on the country's fish stock for survival, contributed to the depletion.
Mr Annan suggested catfish and tilapia for freshwater fishers and shrimps and lobster for marine fishing, adding that in both cases, farming could be done in cages that would be placed in freshwater, for the farming of catfish and tilapia, and for marine fishers who would be farming lobsters and shrimps, this would be done in onshore tanks in these tanks, with water from the sea.
According to him, beneficiary fishers would receive training in fish farming over a period of up to four weeks, following which they would receive rearing cages and tanks, rearing stock, feeding and technical support.
The rearing of seafood, he pointed out, would provide fishers with alternative income, and the incentive to allow especially the marine fish stock to rejuvenate.
"Above all, it would create a whole new industry that has tremendous export earning potential for the Ghanaian economy," he stated.