uum has the additional potential advantage of minimizing problems of inequity in access to the
produce of aquaculture. Many smallholders lack the means to buy fish in the open market, but can
get access to a significant proportion of the fish grown in smallholder systems. These are bartered
or consumed directly by the farm family Brum- mett and Chikafumbwa, 1995.
When they evolve from local initiatives rather than being imposed from outside, even small-scale
commercial producers may be locally successful ALCOM, 1994 and, being further along on the
development continuum, might quickly grow into even larger scale commercial systems, which can
give larger increases in production in the short term. These might be expected to compete with
cheap imports rather than focusing on export markets thus increasing the availability of valu-
able protein for indigenous consumption. The key to success will be in filling the small and diverse
niches within both the local and export markets. To do this requires a reliance on the basic princi-
ples of aquaculture, flexibility in production and marketing strategies and, as for smaller scale pro-
ducers, an evolutionary attitude and approach.
6. Engendering evolution at the national level
Africa has the natural resources to support an aquaculture evolution. Population growth in rural
and urban areas opens up potential outlets for smaller scale producers who can grow low-value
species if they can start small, rely on locally available inputs and be brought close to the
market.
The role of government needs to be redefined Lazard et al., 1991, especially as government
resources contract ALCOM, 1994 and as the need to broaden fisheries and agriculture policies
to include aquaculture is more widely recognized Satia, 1989. Appropriate roles for the govern-
ment are to coordinate national planning, provide appropriate infrastructure support e.g. roads to
market, research, extension and information services.
New approaches that amalgamate the capacities of research and extension to form technology
development and transfer entities that work with smallholders to both develop and disseminate in-
formation have been recognized as crucial van
Fig. 1. Pond productivity over time when technology was introduced incrementally and in partnership between researchers and farmers FSRP and when introduced in the form of technology packages through a training and visit approach non-FSRP.
Charted data are averages of 35 and 48 farms, respectively, out of a population of 225 fish farmers in Southern Malawi from Brummett and Chikafumbwa, 1998. The production target of 2500 kgha was arrived at by extrapolation of Malawi’s national fish
production need to the land area available for aquaculture. Technology to reach this target was developed on research stations and promoted as a complete package. It was, however, too complex for most farmers to fully understand andor adopt without
substantial external support, resulting in declining production as extension support waned. FSRP entry-level technology is much simpler and less productive initially, but evolves into more productive forms as farmers who understand the technology are able to
more efficiently manipulate it to suit their individual situation.
der Mheen, 1996. Training in participatory ap- proaches can help target projects towards the
needs of different households Harrison et al., 1994. Williams 1997 concluded that participa-
tory research and extension would be the relevant approaches to improve adoption and development
where aquaculture is not well developed and not traditionally used. In aquaculture extension, the
technically competent non-governmental organi- zations can play an important role. Research
aimed at smallholders should focus on technolo- gies that facilitate the introduction of aquaculture
into existing farming systems. These would in- clude methods for storing and processing agricul-
tural by-products and the identification of new indigenous species for culture.
Commercial aquaculture will be constrained by lack of access to information and credit and will
benefit by better and more commercial operation of seed production, more specialized training of
research and extension personnel, reorganized public administration and better databases for
planning and evaluation Coche et al., 1994. Bet- ter fish species and strains and more efficient
feeding systems would be valuable contributions from research.
Close cooperation between government agen- cies and between research and extension teams is
required. At the national level, development assis- tance agencies should align their assistance poli-
cies and programs so as to encourage the evolutionary approach with strong local participa-
tion and investments in wider research and knowledge.
7. Outlook for African aquaculture development
