HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN CATFISH POND CULTURE
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Pond
culture is not a traditional farming practice in most parts of Africa introduced after the Second World War, there was
an initial spectacular development with about 300,000 ponds being operational,
mainly rearing Tilapia specie in about 20 African countries by the end of the
fifties. Since then fish culture has not made much progress and has in many
cases even declined resulting in the abandonment of fish ponds by discouraged farmers.
According to several authors the failure to advance fish production has been
attributed to the following factors.
v Harvesting of too many small and
stunted tilapias from over populated ponds because of the use of poor husbandry
techniques;
v Dependency on subsidized extension
services and fingerling distribution centers;
v Misjudgment of the motivation of the
rural fish farmers by policy markers, and the creation of the myth that the
rural farmers will willingly take up fish farming for food security or as a
source of protein for their families. This is most likely not the case. The
primary motivation of rural fish farming generally is income- generation; and
v Failure to apply adequate resources
(which may be naturally limiting) such as water and feed. By the end of the
sixties, a reorientation to increase aquaculture production was proposed that
included the following considerations:
·
A
modification of the farming technique
for Tilapia in which seed production
(see chapter 4) and out-growing to marketable sized fish are separated and the
introduction of monosex tilapia culture; and
·
Identification
of new suitable species for aquaculture was achieved.
It was soon recognized that the
Africa catfish, Clarias gariepinus, was
one of the most suitable species for aquaculture in Africa and since the 1970’s
it has been considered to hold great promise for fish farming in Africa; the
Africa catfish having a high growth rate, being very resistant to handling and
stress, and being very well appreciated in a wide number of Africa countries.
The development of a reliable method
for the production of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings
was one of the priorities of aquacultural research in Africa. Hormone- induced reproduction
of the Africa catfish using deoxycorticosterone acetate, human chorionic
gonadotropin and common carp pituitaries has been carried out successfully.
Hogendoorn and Vismans, successfully developed an intensive production system
for Africa catfish fingerlings based on the use of Artemia salina and a commercial trout starter as feed. However the
existence of technically feasible farming methods and manuals did not guarantee
successful implementation, as the impact of local socio-economic and technical
conditions are more often than not, always under-estimated.
The
introduction of intensive rearing methods in the Central Africa Republic and
the lvory Coast encountered numerous technical and economic problems. The main
problem of fingerling production within ponds was that fish survival rate was
unreliable and varied between 0 – 60 fingerlings/m2/cycle. It has been
suggested that the lack of appropriate feed and the presence of predators are
likely causes of mortality. In the late 1980’s, a simple and reliable method
was developed in Congo Brazzaville for the nursing of Clarias gariepinus within protected ponds. That study indicated
that competition for feed and cannibalism were the major factors affecting pond
nursing of Clarias gariepinus. The
methodology as developed in Congo Brazzaville is now being used in many other
African counties.
Now Nigeria is fast growing in catfish production.CALL US ON 08032861326 FOR HELP AND CONSULTANCY.
