Aquaculture Production: The New Dawn of Farming

Aquaculture is the rearing of aquatic organisms in an enclosed water body under controlled conditions. Aquatic organisms may be plant life such as phytoplankton, lilies, and other forms of algae or animal life such as fish, crocodiles, oysters etc. Controlled conditions include physio-chemical water parameters (dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, phosphorus, etc.), water level, as well as feed. The basic idea here is to imitate what is prevailing in the natural waters so as to achieve optimum yields.

African aquaculture is growing in terms of intensity and productivity. The main types of investors are commercial and non-commercial. Within these domains, there exists a wide range of investment strategies from small to large-scale. Two main groups dominate; large-scale commercial producers and small-scale artisanal producers.

• For small-scale artisanal producers, aquaculture increases revenues, crop diversity and ecological sustainability, while lowering risk and improving resilience. The vast majority of African fish farmers (probably more than 90%) fall into this category. 
• A much smaller number of large-scale commercial fish farms generate food, jobs and considerable revenues in both export and local markets. Although it is not always well documented, the impacts of both of these groups are considerable and important.

Most experts agree that small and medium-scale commercial enterprises are the most efficacious engines of economic growth. Researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute found that "... even small increments to rural incomes that are widely distributed can make large net additions to growth and improve food security." The CGIAR has identified interventions that lead to improved incomes at the level of the rural farmer and resource manager as "having a larger impact on countrywide income than increases in any other sector". To increase the benefits accruing from aquaculture, development planners should consider how to move from the current situation of dominance of small-scale artisanal/large-scale commercial investors, to one where there are many small- and medium-scale commercial investors, without losing the benefits currently being generated by aquaculture.

It can therefore be concluded that there are generally three (3) levels of production i.e. small-scale, medium scale, and commercial/large-scale aquaculture. These levels may be distinguished depending on various factors such as farm size, pond size, capital injection, management levels, workforce/labour size and quality, among other factors.

Commercial producers are defined as those who are:

1. Profit-oriented;
2. Small-, medium- or large-scale;
3. Active participants in the market;
4. Purchasing inputs (including capital and labour);
5. Engaged in off-farm sales of the fish produced; and
6. Aquaculture is among their principal economic activities.

As a relatively small component of the commercial category, industrial farms and farmers are typified by:

1. Agribusinesses where the scale is one of level of capital;
2. Where the produce is often traded on the global market; and
3. Where the technical assistance needs are in the form of policy, legislation, monitoring, regulation, etc.

Non-commercial farmers:

1. May also purchase inputs, mainly seed and feed;
2. Rely chiefly on family labour and on-farm sales of the produce; and
3. Consider aquaculture as being one of the varieties of enterprises comprising the farming system, undertaken to diversify production, to improve resource use and to reduce risks of such events as crop or market failure.

Numerically, the majority of fish growers in any given area may be non-commercial producers and this group certainly constitutes the majority of the constituency in the Africa Region. Yet, commercial farmers serve a critical role, because:

1. They are motors of aquaculture development, willing to invest capital in their enterprises;
2. They create demand for high quality inputs;
3. They catalyse producer groups; and
4. They demand services.
   

For commercial producers to function in this essential way, they must have a critical mass, i.e. a density dependent factor requiring an economically viable "weight" (e.g. surface area, tonnage, etc.), and be present in an economically viable zone. Viable commercial producers will pull down benefits to non-commercial farmers who will inevitably share the same economic zone.