By Aaron Yancho Kaah
According to most small scale farmers in Cameroon, a good harvest is a pre-requisite for good fish business.
Cameroon is boasting of a steady fish market in sub-Sahara Africa yet while the local farmers find ways to make a living out of this sector, much of the fish consumed in the country is imported.
In the recent years this has led to a hike in the prices for fish products. “Fish which use to be a source of protein for the common man and most low income earning households is now consumed by the rich,” Bonue Adoph, a fish trader in Bamenda, Cameroon remarked.
To fix these challenges in the food production chain, the Cameroonian government in 2011 through the ministry of fisheries and livestock initiated broad-based community campaigns to get more farmers involve in inland fish cultivation. To look at statistics an estimated 176.000tons of fish was produced in Cameroon annually with only 1000tons harvested through the aquaculture sector or inland fishing projects.
This represented 0.1% of the national production index according to Mr. Keng Wilfred Nshom of the ministry of trade and industry. Despite the available natural resources that provided a good level ground for quality and quantitative fish production, sustainability in the sector was still a major challenge. Cameroon on a whole spent close to FCFA100 billion each year to supplement the production deficit which is estimated to cost 230.000 tons of fish according to officials in the ministry of livestock and fisheries.
Nonetheless a few passionate fish farmers have been brazing the storms to make a fine living out of the sector. Chief Agaki Solomon in the south west region of Cameroon posits that a year of good harvest brings good fortunes for his household. “But unfortunately for us, the harvest is never the best,”he said.
Pond fish farming actually started in Cameroon in the early 1950s. The lack of adequate infrastructures and institutions to boast the sector have seen it limping from challenge to the next.
To go by the findings of Pouomogne V and Pemsl in a publication entitled the Development and Status of fresh water aquaculture in Cameroon in 2008, the fish sector in Cameroon is far from realizing it potentials. The research affirms that, “fish is a preferred protein source for most rural households because it is cheap as compared to other protein sources like meat , chicken or beef”.
Although there is a big challenge for fingerlings starring this sector in the face, many obstacles still abound. Finance to open up fish farming projects, the lack of well-organized farmer self-help groups, the lack of good fish farming skills and the dominant use of earthen ponds rather than modern structures leave the sector at a want for help.
In the rural communities where most farmers are poor and want to find hope and a better life in the sector, the absences of good fish varieties and poor feeding systems of the ponds aggravate their woes. “we just keeping struggling…. and struggling”. Edge Sophia a fish farmers in the Bambalang village in NW, Cameroon affirmed their difficulties.
In Cameroon earthen ponds are the commonest fish farming structures for inland fishing across the country up to date. “This has resulted to low production … and without any benefits from the sector many of our farmers are bound to leave the sector”..Nguma Mamah a fish farmer in Ndop said. The resulting consequences have brought untold suffering for these rural poor.
“We lack income for urgent needs and can’t maintain a balance diet as well”.Mamah remarked. The urgent wish at hand is to upscale production. But all these dreams are still live in the hands of the poor farmers who see very little efforts coming from government to help them cope.
This lack of motivation is snow balling not only in to poverty but unemployment for the rural youths.
In Mbengwi sub division of the NW region of Cameroon alone there are at least 250 fish ponds owned by some 160 fish farmer initiatives. But not all of these ponds are active. “The enormous challenges and the lack of means to improve production are demoralizing factors”. One of the fish farmers Ndi Samuel remarked. The harvest for these farmers is mostly at end of year meant for family consumption. “Very few farmers have surplus for sale in the local markets,” Samuel said
One point that gets attention in this community is that the Ku-Bome fish station, a government sponsored fish fattening and fingerlings producing
projects, is operating below its capacity.
Their objectives to follow up farmers and to educate them on the benefits of this sector are still only on paper. From the initial stages, 35 ponds were pinpointed in this pilot project. “The lack of water hampered the smooth functioning of these ponds as only 8 are operational” Sammy remarked.
Two of the dams that were expected to be supplying water to the ponds had long collapsed. The lack of staff to keep the vision of the project had poised another challenge.
Anyangwa Theophile and his secretary are the only full time workers in this project. Theophile regrets that he alone cannot follow up farmers in the remotest and landlocked areas of the division without a vehicle. Theophile has not relented too. He has been encouraging farmers to show the same interest and commitment to fish farming as they do for poultry and pig farming.
“Farmers invest in pig breeding because over the years they have learnt that it can yield them good income” he said. Theophile has a proposal. ” I think NGO can boost the sector by providing fingerlings, feed and technical follow-up to the farmers and in return by reaping their benefits of their labour, these passionate farmers can sacrifice more time in the sector” Theophile opined.
A farmer who has taken the bull by the horn in fish farming is Pastor Jessy Ngang in the city of Bamenda. Ngang is spearheading a project aimed at encouraging inland fish farming at the semi urban villages around Bamenda. Yet the inertia in the sector is still unabated. “The lack of financing and technical follow up are the main challenges” He said. On the whole proper organization of the fish farming sector could boost household income, nutrition and create jobs for the youth across Cameroon.
