Agriculture • Created December 5, 2013 04:00

We’ll fully tap potentials of fisheries – Minister

Disclosing this at the recently concluded 28th Annual Conference of the Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON) in Abuja, the minister who was represented by the Acting Director, Fisheries, Deaconess Foluke Areola, told the gathering that the ministry has taken into cognisance the “need for a total restructuring of the Federal Department of Fisheries, FDF, as […]

We’ll fully tap potentials of fisheries – Minister
We’ll fully tap potentials of fisheries – Minister

Disclosing this at the recently concluded 28th Annual Conference of the Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON) in Abuja, the minister who was represented by the Acting Director, Fisheries, Deaconess Foluke Areola, told the gathering that the ministry has taken into cognisance the “need for a total restructuring of the Federal Department of Fisheries, FDF, as the parent body of all other fisheries institutions in the country, in terms of human capacity strengthening to deliver government programmes.”
The minister said that the ministry has reactivated the Presidential Committee on Fisheries Statistics and trained 40 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Geographic Information System (GIS) fisheries officers in fisheries data collection, collation and analysis. He added that the Marine Stewardship Council is also in place to ensure optimum utilisation of some of the fisheries resources and better market prices.
Dr. Adesina stated that all the fishing terminals in the country will be reactivated and incorporated into the staple crops processing zones aimed at providing infrastructure for commercialisation.
The minister further stated that the ministry intends to build a dedicated fishing terminal in Lagos to be incorporated into the staple crop processing zone at Epe, adding that Agbado processing zone in Kogi State which will take off soon has fisheries and aquaculture as major components.
“We want to promote diversification and commercialisation of tilapia through massive production of red tilapia and black tilapia, especially Oreochromis niloticus and other indigenous culturable fish species”, he noted.

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