‘Fishery is beyond agriculture’ – Abdullah

You have a national conference coming up next week, what do you intend to achieve as a society with this event?Actually, we hold this conference every year, usually towards the end of the year in November. There are many objectives to be achieved. First of all is the get together of who is who in […]

You have a national conference coming up next week, what do you intend to achieve as a society with this event?
Actually, we hold this conference every year, usually towards the end of the year in November. There are many objectives to be achieved. First of all is the get together of who is who in fishery – industrialists, scientists, marketers, farmers, researchers, academicians, private investors, public servants and consultants.  The second purpose is to discuss the pertinent issue. Like this year, we are discussing the impact of climate change in the productivity of fishery and aquaculture in Nigeria. You know during last year’s flooding, there was a lot of destruction of farms, houses and fishes but nobody talked about the fishes.  Fish farmers were the major losers in that flood. Most of our fish ponds were washed away, and farmers suffered tremendous losses of their fishes. Thirdly, the occasion is an avenue for academicians to present papers, which will come out in conference proceedings. That is part of the requirement for promotion.
At the conference, we will also give awards to some recognized companies and  individuals that have contributed tremendously to the development of the fishery subsector in Nigeria. For instance, this year, we have fellowship awards for new fellows, professional merit awards to outstanding members, and we also want to award five governors who have contributed tremendously to fishery development in Nigeria. These governors are those of Kebbi, Katsina, Kano, Yobe and Lagos states.
What we did was that we asked the state chapters to get the achievements the state governments in the development of fishery, and we came to the conclusion that these five governors have contributed tremendously to the growth of fishery subsector in Nigeria, by way of establishing ministry of fishery, department of fishery and heavy investments through budgetary allocation and payment of special allowances to fishery staff.  That’s why we want to honour them for to encourage them and also to encourage others to follow suit.
What is your assessment of the fishery subsector in Nigeria in view of the fact that government seems to give more attention to crop farmers?
Exactly, this is a big problem. You know we spend billions annually importing fish into the country. If you go to the Ministry of Agriculture, fishery department is the highest revenue earner through fishing license, export and others. So, we are the highest revenue generation department within the sector. Yet you find that investments by government into the fishery subsector have been minimal. In most cases, when they are talking about agriculture, they keep talking about crops, as you said.
But let me sound a note of warning: we sometimes find it inconvenient to restrict fishery to agriculture. Fishery has three main aspects: We have industrial trawler fishing which operates within the high seas and they do it in industrial scale; then you have the artisanal fishery, which is the harvest of fish from our natural body of waters, which is normally done by the fishermen all over the country. Then you have what we call aquaculture. Aquaculture is the actual fish farming; this is what is really related to agriculture. But when you look at artisanal fishing, it’s about harvest from our natural resources, which is like an environmental issue. Then industrial fishing, you are talking about industries. So, fishery is beyond agriculture. Unfortunately government has not realised this to the fullest. That is why you see minimal allocation to fishery, yet it generates a lot of money to the government. But we haven’t received the attention that we require. That is one of the reasons why in this kind of conference, we want to inform government of our role within the economy.
Many people believe fish farming is practiced more in the southern part of the country, yet most of the governors the society is giving the awards to are from the northern part. Can you explain this?
In fact, am happy you raised this issue. This is really the irony that we found out. You know as I told you, we have state chapters all over the federation and we asked them to do the finding. In fact my expectation was that those from the coastal areas will feature prominently in the awards. But unfortunately, this is where fishery is mostly neglected.
If you talk of artisanal fishing, you find that it is more practiced in the north. That is catching fish from our natural bodies of lakes and rivers. For instance, if you take artisanal fishing, from our statistics, Borno State is the highest producer of fish. But if you are talking about aquaculture, the Southern states, especially south-west, they contribute most, because aquaculture is more or less an elitist thing. It is a knowledge-based practice. It is not just an ordinary farming, and you know the level of education is much higher in that area.

But if we are able to create awareness up here in the North, we have more opportunities because the land is bigger and we have a lot of water resources.  We have 14 million hectares of waters, 70 percent of that fresh water is in the northern part of Nigeria through the large dams and many rivers. But all these have not been harnessed.  The industrial fishes are in the coastal states – normally Lagos, Bayelsa and Rivers. Unfortunately, if you go to these states, they are still talking about crops, while fishery is actually the way of life of the people there. In fact, it was a shock to us when the information got to us. So, we zeroed in on these five governors as the ones who showed more concern in fishery.
Some farmers have problems with fish management and where to sell their product as at when due; as a result, they say they are running at a loss. What is your take on this?
The issue of marketing is a very major issue in the aquaculture subsector. People spend a lot of money, if you take the issue of feed, it constitutes about 70 per cent  of the cost of operation and you need about N300 worth of feed to produce one kilogramme of fish. But when they come to buy your fish they buy between N300 and N400. I am not talking about the ones you see in the market sold between N600 to N700. A farmer doesn’t bring it to the market, people normally go to the farmers and buy it and then take it to the market. So you find out that farmers are operating at a loss or very minimal margin. That has been a big problem.
Market linkage is one of the issues that will be discussed in this conference. A company from Israel is coming to demonstrate all these things. So market linkage, adding value and processing, because if you keep live fishes, if you don’t know how to process it, as long as it is alive, you have to feed it. If you continue feeding with no market, you are eroding your profitability.