It was a festive mood in the Mbuo village as the villagers lead by the Ushirika Cooperative waited for the guest of honour, the District Administrative Secretary for Mtwara District Mr Lucas Kambelenje, to take the scissors to cut the ribbon officially launching the 1st modern commercial milkfish pond in Mtwara and Lindi Regions (fig. 1). This was a culmination of the first year of the Regional Programme for the Sustainable Management of the Coastal Zones of the Countries of the Indian Ocean that was won by WIOMSA and is being executed under coordination of Dr. Aviti John Mmochi of the Institute of Marine Sciences of the University of Dar es Salaam. The program has successfully trained 66 fish farmers and fisheries officers to become extension officers and provide outreach services. The Project with three stations namely Mtwara/Lindi, Pemba and Tanga, has trained 22 extension officers in each station.

The training was both theoretical and practical. The theoretical part was done using and testing a Swahili manual for milkfish farming with 4 chapters namely 1. site selection and pond construction, 2. pond preparation and stocking, 3. pond management and feeding and 4. harvesting, storage, processing and marketing. The practical part involved actual site selection and pond construction and management. The pond in question is 1 ha in size divided in to six small ponds (fig. 2). The pond is already stocked with 15,000 milkfish fingerlings and 5000 prawn post larvae and the manual will be published as part of the ReCoMaP project.

The launching was decorated by Makonde traditional dance “sindimba” and green and white T-shirts with ReCoMaP, WIOMSA and University of Dar es Salaam logos and the words “Tujikomboe na Umaskini Kupitia Ufugaji wa Samaki” translating to “Lets liberate ourselves from poverty through fish farming”. Aye that was just the beginning of the fun as one of the new extension officer had just harvested fish from his pond at the nearby village of Ndumbwe (fig.3). Knowing this in advance we first facilitated him to visit Pride FM radio station the most popular in the region where he was interviewed on milkfish farming process and prospects. The interview was followed by a lot of questions from callers and indeed quite a number of people attended the launching party and bought his fish after listening to the radio.

As if this was not enough we took the opportunity to buy some fish from Mr Yahya and facilitated the ladies in Mbuo to cook milkfish rice meal which was then distributed to all the people who attended. As is traditionally African the guest of honour was awarded the biggest milkfish which was about half a kilo. Now I new that a half a kilo milkfish will have some pronounced muscular bones. What do I do? I intervened by requesting the ladies to give him an additional smaller fish and confided to the guest of honour to start with the smaller fish. Bones or no bones, milkfish is delicious and every body was very happy. Mr Yahya harvested 683 kg (1649 fish with an average weight of 0.426 kg) of fish from an area of 1600 m2 (0.430 kg/m2 or 4 tons/ha) and sold them at one million six hundred and two thousand five hundred equivalent to ten million per ha.

We also took the opportunity to launch the milkfish farming manual that was developed by WIOMSA through the Sustainable Coastal Communities and Ecosystems (SUCCESS). We took some time to explain the economics of milkfish farming which was really appreciated by bankers that participated in the ceremony and who promised to try and convince their respective banks to include mariculture in their list of economically feasible projects During the launching in October 2009, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that for the one year of the project the number of ponds had increased tremendously from a mere 6 ha to 24 ha (Fig. 4) the highest growth rate in Tanzania. We are now anxiously waiting from for the harvests not only from the ReCoMaP demonstration ponds but also the associated ponds by training and partial support.

Fig. 1 Launching of the ReCoMaP Pond

Fig. 2 Sketch drawing of the 1ha milkfish demonstration pond

Fig. 3 Fish harvested from Ndumbwe being sold at Mbuo during the launching

]]> http://www.wiomariculture.org/forum/?feed=rss2&p=213 http://www.wiomariculture.org/forum/?p=203 http://www.wiomariculture.org/forum/?p=203#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:30:38 +0000 admin http://www.wiomariculture.org/forum/?p=203 The End of the Line is a powerful film and the world’s first major documentary about one of the world’s most disturbing problems - over-fishing. It gives us an imagination of an ocean without fish, our meals without seafood and the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop

Allocate your precious time to watch the film at the following link  http://endoftheline.com

On 30 July 2009 y, the European Commission launched a call for proposals entirely dedicated to research for Africa. Africa continues to face serious challenges to sustain its development and research can develop solutions. This special initiative for Africa will address some of the science and technology objectives included in the EU-Africa Strategic Partnership agreed on by the European Commission and the African Union Commission in December 2007. Up to €63 million will be allocated to research projects in 2010 aiming to improve health conditions, and water and food security in Africa. Supported research activities will involve African partners, with the aim to strengthen Africa’s research base.

EU Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potočnik said: “With this “Africa call” we are turning words into actions. The EU-Africa Strategic Partnership is harnessing the potential of science and technology to meet the water, food security and health challenges of Africa. It is getting researchers from Europe and Africa to work together in the true spirit of this Partnership; we are working not only for, but with Africa”.

Promoting cooperation between complementary research areas

This call for proposals is the first one entirely dedicated research initiative for Africa under the EU’s Framework Programme for research (FP7). It brings together several funding Themes under FP7:  Health (€39 million), Environment (€17.5 million) and Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology (€6.5 million). The projects selected will involve these various scientific and technological research fields and will also take into account broader socio-economic factors such as migration and resettlement, urbanisation, health care systems, variation of food and energy prices, etc.

Two major issues: “Water and Food Security” and “Better Health for Africa”

The “Africa Call” is structured around two major issues:

• “Water and Food Security”. The projects selected will strive to ensure both safe drinking water and good sanitation and hygiene. They will aim to revitalise agriculture, promote more sustainable production systems and ensure food security. They will also address Africa’s vulnerability to the expected climate change impacts by setting up early warning and forecasting systems to address risks such as droughts or vector-borne diseases.
• “Better Health for Africa”. The projects selected will focus on reducing the malaria disease burden, improving early diagnosis and treatment of the most frequent infection-related cancers, improving maternal and newborn health, assessing migrant health and addressing the shortage of healthcare personnel.

The application deadline for the call is 14 January 2010 and projects selected to negotiate grant agreements will be announced by April 2010.

Collaborative research and capacity-building
All projects will involve local stakeholders. Depending on the project, at least 2 or 3 partners must be established in an African country. The projects selected will foster capacity-building through the promotion of academic research and training, the setting up of networks, and the building of sustainable capacity for research for health.

An information Day on 18th September 2009
EU Commissioner Potočnik and a representative from the African Union will open the Information Day on the “Africa call”. Ongoing activities in support of Africa and future prospects in the field of research within the EU-African Strategic Partnership will be presented. A detailed presentation of the call and its topics will be followed by a brokerage session. Participants will have the possibility of giving a ‘2-3 minutes flash’ presentation.
The deadline for registration is 14th September 2009.

Background
The European Commission (EC) and the African Union Commission (AUC) representing 53 African States agreed on an EU / Africa Strategic Partnership during the EU/AU Summit in Lisbon in December 2007. 8 thematic partnerships were identified, the 8th of these being the partnership for Science, Information Society, and Space. In the framework of this 8th Partnership, 19 priority “lighthouse” project areas have already been identified and developed by the African Union. This call covers some of the early deliverables amongst those project areas. The partnership is not only between two Commissions, but also with the 27 and 53 Member States on the two continents, and it is intended to provide a framework for co-ordinated support and delivery of research.

For more information:

• Africa call
• Information Day : http://circa.europa.eu/Public/irc/rtd/rtdafr2010call/library

]]> http://www.wiomariculture.org/forum/?feed=rss2&p=198 http://www.wiomariculture.org/forum/?p=189 http://www.wiomariculture.org/forum/?p=189#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:52:23 +0000 Semba http://www.wiomariculture.org/forum/?p=189 The FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia and the Pacific (NACA) and the Department of Fisheries of the Royal Thai Government will co-sponsor the “Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010″.

It will be held from 9-12 June 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand and back-to-back with the 5th Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries, Sub-Committee on Aquaculture to take place from 14-18 June 2010.

For more information click here

The organizers will not charge you for this workshop. ARDA is organising and funding:
- transportation from St Denis to St Gilles on Sunday 30th August
- transportation from the hotel at St Gilles to the conference venue every day of the workshop
- transportation back to St Denis (airport) after the workshop on the 5th of September.
We can fund neither accommodation nor lunch, dinner or refund change in plane tickets.
But if requested, they can book a hotel room for you in St Gilles (35 euros per person per night).

Discussions and/or aquaculture tours if requested by participants offshore aquaculture cages in Saint-Paul Bay, freshwater hatchery, recirculation systems technology in marine hatchery…

If you wish to attend this workshop, please contact Sophie Vermond (sophievermond@hotmail.com) before the 3rd August 2009, explaining your background and why you are interested in this workshop.

they won’t be able to welcome more than 15 persons. Priority will be given to people involved in the development of aquaculture projects or coastal areas management.

(Extract from the current WIOMSA newsbrief - Courtesy of WIOMSA)

In 2004, the five year Programme, titled Sustainable Coastal Communities and Ecosystems (SUCCESS), was initiated in Eastern Africa and Latin America. Many wondered then, whether the acronym SUCCESS would live up to its name. Four years on, there is consensus amongst partners, peers and the coastal communities that have benefited from the program, that it has indeed been a SUCCESS!  The SUCCESS Program was a collaborative initiative of Coastal Resources Center of the University of Rhode Island (CRC-URI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote Integrated Coastal Management, Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture worldwide.  In Eastern Africa, the Programme was implemented by the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) of the University of Dar es Salaam both based in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

The programme’s accomplishments in Tanzania and East Africa were celebrated at a special seminar held in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, on the 11^th March 2009. During the event, experts from the project presented their results to stakeholders from the coastal communities, relevant government departments, USAID officials from Washington and the mission in Tanzania, academia, NGOs and other implementing partners. They also held plenary discussions on implications of the Programme and future opportunities.

The highlights of SUCCESS include the introduction of pearl farming; communities in Fumba Peninsular ,Zanzibar have started their own small scale half pearl farms. This follows the production by SUCCESS of the first ever artificial pearls in the region. Shell polishing, which is a part-time activity of the Programme has become a lucrative business earning some women up to 400 USD per month. Milkfish farming has improved from 0.5 tons/ha up to 3 tons/ha, with the prices rising from 0.4 USD up to 4 USD through proper choice of markets and the farms size changing from tens to hundreds of ha. The communities of Fumba Peninsular, especially the women, have become very enterprising.

At the inception of pearl farming, adult oysters were collected from the wild. The practice was found to be unsustainable; accordingly,spat collectors were set and the settling spats cultured to seeding size. Besides being more environmentally friendly, spats produce better animals with less attached parasites – thanks to regular monthly cleaning. The seeding of oysters for pearls, instead of eating into an additional year of  their reproductive cycle, has substantially improved the conservation of oysters. This and the establishment of no-take zones has resulted in remarkable recovery of the pearl oyster population at Bweleo; which in 1989 was depleted beyond recovery. Collecting pearl oysters for food has also decreased substantially as the women collectors are now engaged in different income generating activities like pearl farming, shell polishing and marketing, and seaweed farming. Further, the  organization of the women into groups by SUCCESS has made it easy for other donors such as the Tanzania Marine and Coastal Environmental Management Project (MACEMP) to provide loans for poultry and agriculture; develop infrastructure for seaweed drying and storage; and construct  a building for meetings and display of their commodities. 

The Government of Tanzania created a taskforce to develop the National Aquaculture Development Strategy (NADS) and has created a division of aquaculture in the Department of Fisheries, activities that seem to have been influenced by the SUCCESS Programme in some way. The Government is also creating an enabling atmosphere, and proper policy and permiting procedures.

As the SUCCESS Programme ends, new projects are emerging, which are adopting its activities. These include the US State Department exchange training program on jewelry making, the 2 year Regional Program for Sustainable Management of Coastal Zones of the Indian Ocean Countries (ReCoMaP) projects for pearl farming  and milkfish farming and MACEMP.

The ReCoMaP program on milkfish farming is developing 1ha demonstration ponds in Tanga, Pemba and Mtwara to complement the Changwahela demonstration sites developed by SUCCESS. At each centre, at least 25 people are trained on all aspects of fish farming in six 5-day training stints (30 man days over the two year period). The trained extension officers are encouraged to develop their own farms with those developing the right type of ponds being rewarded with the installation of  a main gate to the pond - an otherwise costly venture. The ReCoMaP project on pearl oyster farming and shell polishing is being carried out in Fumba Peninsular with the aim of consolidating the pearl farming and shell polishing industry from farming through polishing, packaging and marketing. In a related,development, the US State Department in collaboration with IMS have launched a training and exchange program where women entrepreneurs will travel to America to visit their counterparts in the business and trainers from America will come to Zanzibar to conduct training.

It is reasonable to believe that the seed that was sown by SUCCESS is growing.

Group picture of the participants to the closeout meeting, 11th March, 2009

 The publication is available online at www.wiomsa.org/mariculture and www.wiomsa.org 

The project is a result of a “Comprehensive Mariculture Survey” conducted in 2007 that was funded by the USAID through the SUCCESS project. The survey was conducted in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania. Tanga, Mtwara and Pemba are among many sites identified as suitable for milkfish farming. The partners in the SUCCESS project participated in developing the new proposal and the same local partners are implementing it. One year later, the construction of abandoned ponds for farming milkfish is underway at Kangagani, Pemba, Mbuo, Mtwara and Machui in Tanga.

Photos; Clockwise, Nearly completed one hectare pond at Mbuo, Mtwara and a private early adopter standing at his farm

By using designed selection criteria including; water supply, good soil conditions, accessibility to transport and management, fingerlings availability, farm security, tidal characteristics and ground elevation, flood hazards, climatic conditions, enough area for future expansion, spots for putting ponds were chosen democratically by the interdisciplinary team of trained local participants during a site selection training workshop held in December in each region.

The sites currently designated for milkfish farming were established in early 1990s and 2000s as salt production sites, which is still doing well in all the sites. In some cases however, salt ponds have been abandoned. The idea of fish farming is not new to the villagers in the sites as they are fish farmers; albeit unknowingly. In their usual daily salt production routine, when the reservoirs are filled with water for salt production; the water comes with fingerlings of milkfish and other species. The villagers have been keeping these and allowing them to grow in reservoirs until they are big enough for harvest.

In keeping with the same concept, we introduced the idea of integrating milkfish farming and salt processing on the same sites. Since salt processing is carried out during the dry months and stops during the rainy season; milkfish farming could be done during the rainy season thus serving as an alternative activity that would ensure that the farms are operational throughout the year.

One advantage of incorporating these two activities is that their intensities alternate with seasons where during the dry season salt processing is very intense while fish farming management including pond preparations, fingerling collection and stocking are done in the rainy seasons. The salt producers will have the advantage of continuing to produce salt while at the same time growing milkfish increasing food security and income from two enterprises at different seasons. Other advantages are to reduce pressure of already depleted marine resources and utilizing the abandoned saltpans.

Since mid February, salt processing stopped at Mbuo and Kangagani due to rainy season. Construction of one hectare earthen ponds divided into six smaller ponds and main canal supplying water to each pond is underway. Mbuo site ponds in Mtwara are at the final stages (fig.1). For fingerlings are mainly more abundant during rain seasons. Accordingly, we have developed a special “fingerlings collection” programme which started in March in the sites using four different collection gears. The approach is to ensure we have enough fingerlings collected prior to stocking, which is planned to be done in late April or early May.

Photos: stationary milkfish collection gears, at Kangagani site, Pemba

The main objective of the project is to demonstrate modern technology and practices of farming milkfish. According to the project plan, the first four adopters of the technology and practices of the demonstration milkfish ponds during the life span of the project will be supported for the construction of the main gate which is one of the main limitations in the construction works. For the last three months since we started implementing the project, two sites, one in Kangagani and Mbuo have adopted the project plan and are at very advanced stages of finishing the dike construction.

Photo: Clockwise, Mr Chimila, shareholder of Mbuo farm, Bi Khadija Malibiche, extension officer at Mbuo sites. she works with Mtwara Umbrella organization (KIMWAM)