Skretting sets sights on boosting African aquaculture

Africa must increase aquaculture productivity at a faster rate than the global average if it is to feed a rapidly growing population.

The Skretting and WorldFish partnership will focus on two areas:

• Understanding and analysing the structure of the African aquaculture industry;
• Analysing and improving farming practices.

In a press release, the partners said that knowing the different stakeholders involved and their impact on the value chain allows for better decision-making and public policy.

Skretting and WorldFish will work with a panel of fish farmers to develop best management practices, and test new technologies using mobile applications to gather and feed back data to the farmers to enhance performance.

Food security

“Skretting wants to help achieve food security in Africa, a goal that is in line with our mission of ‘Feeding the Future’,” said Rob Kiers, managing director of Skretting Asia and Africa.

“Fish is an important part of the diet in African countries, where 18.4% of animal protein intake comes from fish. We will work with WorldFish to develop the local aquaculture industry in a shared-value approach and collect data to deliver fish farmers the right feed according to their needs.”

“We believe that strategic collaborations with the private sector are essential for accelerating the sustainable development of aquaculture in Africa’s developing economies,” said Gareth Johnstone, director general of WorldFish, which works to harness the potential of fisheries and aquaculture to reduce hunger and poverty.

Best practices

“Our partnership with Skretting will enable the scaling of tried and tested technologies and best practices - one of our core goals - paving the way for fish to boost more nutritious diets and secure steady incomes and improved livelihoods across the continent. WorldFish and Skretting share a common vision for how science and innovation must underpin this process, and we will work together to roll out affordable solutions that effectively target and reach the millions of people who depend on fish.”

Skretting and WorldFish have been working together for over two years at the WorldFish Aquaculture Research and Training Centre in Abbassa, Egypt on tilapia nutrition and raw feed material evaluation. They have also collaborated on Skretting’s Community Development Project in Zambia.