Sustainable Aquaculture Research Networks for Sub Saharan Africa - A new era for strengthening African aquaculture development.

More people and ever less fish to eat – a common challenge for people all over Africa.

“So much of Africa’s relative underdevelopment in aquaculture is because of limited access and exchange of information – we hope this innovative project will change this” said Emmanuel Kaunda of Bunda College, an institution charged with supporting development of fish production in Malawi.

Would you like to know how Clarias catfish are currently being cultured in Nigeria? Who is researching tilapia feeds and nutrition in South Africa? Or how private fish hatcheries are developing in Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire?

The EC funded SARNISSA project aims to link like minded individuals throughout Sub Saharan Africa and beyond for their mutual benefit. Language differences present a particular challenge. English speakers may be unaware of key contacts or unable to access the wealth of information from French-speaking countries and vice versa for French speakers

The three-year project will strengthen alliances between languages and across borders among experienced and emergent players in the African and wider aquaculture scene that will build on an existing knowledge resource base and exchange platform – The Aquaculture Compendium – http://www.cabi.org/compendia/ac/index.asp - which will be made available throughout the project period to all key project stakeholders who will help provide new materials related to sub Saharan African development.



A consortium of 8 partners from Africa, Europe¹ and beyond recently held an inception meeting in Stirling UK². The project team has a balance of considerable experience and expertise in the aquaculture research and commercial sectors, development and policy, and information technology, as well as an ability to work in different linguistic areas, and a track record in the implementation of activities at local to international level.

The project focus is very much on initiating regular communication among stakeholders (researchers, commercial and market sectors, government agencies, NGOs, and others) in order that collaborations can be initiated and nurtured. Identifying and developing such new initiatives for sub Saharan African aquaculture research will be critical to this process. These may be between researchers and commercial users, between anglophone and francophone regions, between Africa and Asia; and between Europe and Africa. Through the further development of the Aquaculture Compendium the project aims to deliver a comprehensive interdisciplinary knowledge base required for Sub Saharan African aquaculture to develop in a sustainable way and so fulfil its potential to help increase farmers’ incomes and increase food security.

If you are interested in being involved and feel that you can both benefit and contribute please contact:

Emmanuel Kaunda ekaunda@yahoo.com Bunda College, University of Malawi Lilongwe, Box 219, Malawi

William Leschen wl2@stir.ac.uk at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK.



¹ Bunda College of Agriculture (Malawi), IRAD (Cameroon), ETC Netherlands., CIRAD (France), World Fish Center (Egypt), CABI (UK), Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand), and Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling (co-ordinator UK)
²Sarnissa Inception meeting, Institute of Aquaculture, Stirling, UK 7-8th February 2008.



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