Aquaculture and food security, poverty alleviation and nutrition in Ghana: Case study prepared for the Aquaculture for Food Security, Poverty Alleviation and Nutrition project

Abstract

This study provides an overview of the aquaculture sector in Ghana.It assesses the actual and potential contribution of aquaculture to poverty reduction and food security, and identifies enabling conditions for and drivers of the development of Ghana's aquaculture sector.The study uses data collected from a variety of primary and secondary sources, including key informant interviews with actors within the aquaculture sector and relevant secondary literature. Overview of the aquaculture sector in GhanaAquaculture is currently practiced in all 10 regions of Ghana, most prominently in the southern and central belts.The main fish species cultivated are Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and African catfish (Clarias gariepinus).Tilapia species represent over 90 percent of farmed fish production.Pond aquaculture is the main production system in terms of number of farms, and is mainly small scale and semi-intensive.However, in the last five to seven years the dominant culture system for tilapia production has changed, and the vast majority of tilapia is now farmed intensively in cages in Lake Volta.Aquaculture production increased from 950 metric tons in 2004 to over 27,000 metric tons in 2012.This growth is due mainly to increased production from a small number of large-scale cage farms.Overall, cage farms currently account for less than 2 percent of farms by number but much more by production.In 2012, for example, aquaculture production from cages was over 24,000 metric tons compared to less than 2,000 metric tons from ponds and tanks.The growth in aquaculture production is also attributed to increased availability of quality fingerlings and feed for fish production.The number of private hatcheries, which currently produce the majority of fingerlings in Ghana, has increased in recent years as a result of the rapid growth of cage farming.The establishment of a feed mill in Ghana in 2011 by Ranaan, an Israeli company, has greatly improved the reliability and availability of feed supply to fish farmers in Ghana. Actual and potential impacts of aquaculture on poverty and food security in GhanaThe study assesses direct and indirect poverty impacts of small-scale pond aquaculture in Ashanti Region and cage aquaculture by small and medium enterprise -termed "SME" -cage farms in Lake Volta, Eastern Region, drawing on the findings of an earlier study. 1 These findings suggest that overall, aquaculture has higher potential to impact poverty through indirect impact pathways, such as economic multiplier effects, than directly through increasing the incomes and food security of poor fish-farming households.While poor households have been able to adopt aquaculture in Ashanti Region, small-scale pond aquaculture does not have strong positive direct impacts on the poverty and livelihoods of these households.However, small-scale aquaculture does appear to have positive direct impacts on the livelihoods of non-poor fish-farming households who are trained or use better management practices (termed fish farming type A).The level of these impacts is dependent largely on the household and livelihood characteristics, as well as the knowledge and management practices, of these farmers and is also likely to be influenced by the infrastructure and institutional context.There is potential to increase aquaculture's direct poverty impact, however, if poor fish-farming households are able to overcome their resource constraints and benefit from fish farming type A. The potential economic multiplier effects and associated backward, forward and consumption linkages are estimated to be stronger for small-scale pond aquaculture (fish farming type A) than for SME cage aquaculture.Thus, for equivalent increases in scale, small-scale pond aquaculture (fish farming type A) is found to have more potential to generate broad-based, pro-poor economic growth than SME cage aquaculture.Large-scale cage farm (West African Fish) in Lake VoltaPhoto credit: West African Fish Ltd. Key event or technical changeShift from ponds to cages Introduction of low-cost cage technology "Akosombo strain