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Ghana identified as a good ground for aquaculture business
GHANA - Mrs. Gladys Asmah, Minister for Fisheries on Tuesday called on Ghanaians entrepreneurs to position themselves to partner foreign investors in the aquaculture industry since Ghana has been identified as a good site for aquaculture business. She said studies over 93the last two years have proven beyond all doubt that aquaculture in Ghana can be a viable economic and rewarding venture because all the natural factors, especially water and good soil are available in abundance".Mrs Asmah was addressing about 200 participants who attended a day's Aquaculture Investors Forum in Accra that deliberated on the government's aim of promoting aquaculture as a business venture. It attracted participants from the Association of Ghana Industries, Banking and Financial Institutions, fish farmers, animal feed producers, importers and exporters and policy makers at all levels.
Mrs Asmah said the promotion of aquaculture in the past failed because people lacked commitment, treated it as a hobby instead of a business and lacked technical expertise.
"These constraints were aggravated by factors that include: not too clear institutional policies and allocations of responsibilities, weak aquaculture institutions, poor networking among aquaculture institutions, poorly defined skilled staff and motivated practitioners at all levels.
"Also, lack of complete understanding of scientific aquaculture, the abundant marine and inland fishing at the time did not give the needed impetus to pursue aquaculture as a viable enterprise, hence the poor performance of the industry at the time," Mrs Asamh said. The Fisheries Minister said government was giving all interested parties the opportunity to retrace their steps and move forward in making aquaculture the business for the next decade.
"The ministry's target for aquaculture production in the next five years is to produce up to 50 per cent of local consumption which stands at about 400,000 metric tonnes.
"To achieve this target, there is the need to step up efforts, to inject major factors such as financial and technical support in the aquaculture enterprise," Mrs Asmah said.
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Source: Ghana Web
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