Management, Challenges and Developments of Aquaculture ... 15not yet permitted because the environmental risk assessment has not been
completed.
Skills and Capacity Building
In spite of the huge potential of aquaculture in the country, the current
production is contributed by the few large scale commercial cage farmers.
Meanwhile, there are a lot of small scale farmers that use the different systems
of production. This proves that the technical and/or managerial expertise in
most farms is underdeveloped. Currently, about five public and two private
universities are invoved in aquaculture training. The private sector such as
Ghana Aquaculture Society, Anioo Ansah Farms, Asufua Fisheries, are
involved in aquaculture training. The success of fish culture does not only
depend on the survival and growth rate of the fish strain but also on the skills
of the labour and management of the farm. Therefore, another opportunity for
aquaculture development is the establishment of more training or
demonstration centers for capacity building and knowledge transfer to equip
the small scale farmers with appropriate skills that are lacking at the different
levels of production across the country. This can also help develop particularly
pond farmers in the middle and central belts of the nation where several
opportunities exist for constructing ponds. The culture of catfishes can also be
expanded especially after the skill for artificially spawning becomes very well
learnt.
Strong Governmental Support and Conducive Policies for Investors
The government of Ghana through the Ministry of Fisheries and
Aquaculture Development has taken several steps to support and accelerate
aquaculture development in Ghana. The measures are mainly training
programmes in fish farming techniques. As of 2008 the Department of
Fisheries had assisted in training more than three hundred people countrywide
in aquaculture and over USD 500,000 was allocated to the newly trained
farmers as start-up capital to promote production (Hiheglo, 2008). In 2012 a
new Fisheries and Aquaculture policy, which embraces the development of
aquaculture and provides detailed financial support to further promote
investments into aquaculture was adopted. The government budgeted a total of
US$ 84,313,900 to the support aquaculture development in Ghana. Among
activities to be undertaken include; establishment of high priority aquaculture
zones, establishment of national aquaculture business database, assisting more
fish farmers to access funds more easily on competitive terms for investment
in aquaculture business, strengthening the national capacity for ensuring the