Why Aquaculture Trials Have Not Been Successful in Tanzania? 129Based on the above it was advised that extension approaches targeting
voluntary groups of farmers should make it clear that group tactics are good
for demonstration and marketing in form of association and cooperatives.
Group enterprise approaches should be used as means for lowering product
costs such as through marketing conditions rather than as means of production.
Available information suggested that group work rather than group owned
ponds/pens/farms would be more preferred and easy to manage (Wetengere,
2011). In agriculture for instance, farmers were mobilized to do certain
activities like tilling land together but ownership of the farm belonged to an
individual farmer. The same approach could be applied in milkfish farming
and crab fattening where farmers as a group can undertake specific, preferably
one-time, activities like pond/pen construction, milkfish/crab harvesting, pond
repair and joint marketing of the aquaculture products to reduce transport and
transaction costs. It was noted that during this field study, some farmers
associated group-owned ponds with ujamaa (socialism), a policy which failed
in Tanzania and was abandoned in the early 1980s. During this survey, farmers
were asked to suggest what was to be done to improve production of milkfish
and crab. An advice given by most farmers was to reduce the size of group
members and/or to operate as a family or a company.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The objective of this study was to critically review and assess aquaculture
trials in Tanzania, objectively concluding why the past and the on-going
aquaculture trials have or have not been up scaled. The review shows that the
aquaculture trials have largely not been up-scaled because of: low priority
given to the aquaculture sector, targeted at the poor section of the community,
introduction of projects that encouraged dependency, the unmet objectives for
undertaking aquaculture, the poor location of aquaculture farms, a lack of
availability of quality fingerlings in the right quantities, inadequate feeds and
fertilization, relative disadvantage of aquaculture in comparison to other
competing activities and lack of ownership of the aquaculture projects. This
review suggests the following: Firstly, government support in creating an
enabling environment in form of formulating appropriate policy, laws,
regulations, guidelines, investments promotion and regulation of the
aquaculture sector is vital. Finally, operating aquaculture as a business will
enable it to address all the determinant factors for success of aquaculture trials
identified by this study.