Search NaijaAgroNet

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Africa can feed on small fish - Study

There is a burgeoning small, fast growing wild fish sector with capabilities to feed the continent of Africa, says the latest study of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) especially from drylands, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The new FAO report on fisheries in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa, its crucial to look towards these allies in the race to end hunger in some of the world's most chronically poor and underfed regions.

Lead author of the study, Jeppe Kolding, a professor of biology at the University of Bergen in Norway, noted that in order to get fish in a dryland their eggs could be boosted.

"Fish are incredibly productive when conditions are right. Their egg-laying capacities made them, more like insects than other vertebrates," he said.

Although the study recognized water as an ephemeral resource in Africa's dryland regions, which could be formed and disappearing relatively in a short period of time could not be surprising.

Kolding noted that despite this, fish some of which weigh as little as a few grams at maturity could survive and thrive in these environments, meaning the continent's dryland fisheries are in fact highly productive and resilient.

Pointing out that output from dryland fisheries fluctuates due to climate trends - mainly low and above all uncertain rainfall -but productive potential is very high in smaller water bodies, some of which appear only once a decade but could produce up to 150 kilograms of fish per hectare per year. Together, these small water bodies cover a much larger area than the sub-Saharan region's lakes and reservoirs.

This, the study said, if properly managed, these bodies in southern Africa alone could produce 1.25 million tonnes of fish, which is half the total recorded inland fisheries yield of the entire continent.
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

No comments:

Post a Comment

Share ur views here