By: Dr Mustapha ABA. Aquaculture Scientific Expert. Fish Nutrition. Rabat. Morocco.
Introduction
According to the OECD (2023), in order to ensure food security, world fish production should increase by 1.2% per year and should reach 203 Mt by 2031, an overall increase of 25 Mt (+14%) compared with the reference period (average 2019-2021), and by 2031, world aquaculture production should reach 108 Mt, 12 Mt more than the capture sector. Aquaculture will account for 53% of total fish supply in 2031, compared with 49% in the 2020 period (Figure 1).
Fig 1 : Aquaculture, total capture production and capture for human consumption (Source: OECD/FAO, 2022)
Fisheries catches have risen from 7 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes in 2020, while aquaculture production was around 450 000 tonnes in 2000, rising to almost 2 million 420 000 tonnes in 2020 (FAO, 2024).
The 2.4 million African aquaculture products are not evenly distributed across the continent, with African regions experiencing major disparities in aquaculture production for decades (Fig 5), with significant production since the 2000s in the North, West and East African regions, and of the 2.4 million tonnes produced in aquaculture on the African continent, North Africa produces almost 70% (almost all by Egypt), West Africa with 16.06%, while the East African region produces 15.70% of aquaculture products. Central and Southern Africa produce less than 1.3% (FAO, 2024).
Fig 2 : Aquaculture production in the 5 regions of Africa
Africa’s contribution to global aquaculture production is still insignificant (2%) (FAO, 2023), although it is increasing considerably with larger-scale investments in Egypt, Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana producing substantial quantities of fish (Cai et al., 2017). The region recorded a twenty-fold increase in production, rising from 1,110,200 to 2,418,844 tonnes from 1995 to 2021, with an annual growth rate of 15.55% (FAO 2023). The growth in aquaculture production shows huge disparities between the different regions of Africa, and the aim of this article is to analyse the current situation of aquaculture in the leading aquaculture producers in the 5 regions of Africa, namely Egypt in the North African region, Nigeria in the West African region, Uganda in the East African region, Cameroon in the Central African region and South Africa in the South African region.
CURRENT STATUS OF AQUACULTURE IN UGANDA
Introduction
Uganda is a country in the East African region. Uganda’s population has grown by approximately 3% over the last few decades. As a result, its population has grown from 24 million in 2000 to 49.7 million in 2024, and is expected to reach 100 million in 2050 (worldometers, 2024). Uganda is a predominantly agricultural economy, with agriculture, forestry and fisheries accounting for 24% of total GDP in 2020. The fisheries sector contributed 2.3% to Uganda’s GDP in 2020.
Uganda lies across the equator and is well endowed with inland waters consisting of lakes, rivers and swamps. Uganda is a landlocked country, with about 16% (37,166 km2) of its area covered by surface water bodies and wetlands (Nsubuga et al., 2014), of the country’s total area of 241,550 km2 , The 68,000 km2 of Lake Victoria are shared between Uganda (45 percent), Tanzania (49 percent) and Kenya (6 percent) (FAO, 2022) and are by far the country’s main source of fisheries resources (NEPAD, 20O5).
Fisheries production in Uganda
Uganda, like other developing countries, depends on agriculture, including fishing and aquaculture, for growth and export development. In Uganda, fish is one of the high-value products that contributes significantly to the country’s economic growth. Uganda has enormous resource potential for aquaculture production and capture fisheries, as more than 40% of its land area is covered by water. According to World Bank estimates (2012), the fishing industry provides a livelihood for over 1.5 million Ugandans, with most of the fish coming from Lake Victoria (NaFiRRi, 2020).
Fig1: Total fisheries and aquaculture production in Uganda
Total capture production peaked at 461,500 tonnes in 2014, but declined in subsequent years to 389,600 tonnes in 2017. Production recovered in 2019 to around 603,000 tonnes. Uganda is the second largest aquaculture producer in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria. Aquaculture production in Uganda has risen from just over 800 tonnes (2000) to 103,700 tonnes in 2019 (FAO, 2022).
Freshwater aquaculture has continued to make up an overall share of Uganda’s aquaculture production especially as water availability is essential for aquaculture development (Ssekyanzi et al., 2021).
Photo : Cage aquaculture (Lake Harvest Uganda)
In Uganda, fish accounts for over 63% of the protein consumed by Ugandans, with annual per capita consumption of 8.7 kg in 1999 rising to 15.3 kg/year in 2021, above the African average of 10.1 kg (Adeleke et al., 2021; FAO, 2023).
Fig 2 : Production of fisheries and aquaculture in Uganda
Fish production in Uganda in 2023 is divided between fisheries catches (Fig 2) with 621,987 tonnes (78%) and aquaculture production estimated at 138,558 tonnes, representing over 22% of the country’s fisheries production (FAO, 2023).
Aquaculture in Uganda
In terms of production, Uganda is the third largest aquaculture producer in Africa, behind Egypt and Nigeria, and the second largest in sub-Saharan Africa (Adeleke et al. 2021). Aquaculture production was around 820 tonnes in 2000, rising to 138558 tonnes in 2021, with an annual growth rate of 27.67%, placing the country among the top aquaculture producers on the African continent.
Uganda currently needs at least 908,200 tonnes of fish per year for the local market and will need at least 1,527,300 tonnes by 2040 if Ugandans are to consume fish at the world average per capita fish consumption level of 20.5 kg (FAO, 2020).
Aquaculture in Uganda has a relatively recent history; it is reported that aquaculture started in 1953 with the creation of the Kajjansi experimental station (Balarin, 1985; Rutaisire, 2007). The main objective was to improve the nutrition of rural families through an increased content of animal protein in the diet, with the aim of reducing malnutrition (Rutaisire et al., 2017).
Large lakes and rivers offer opportunities for intensive cage culture (MAAIF, 2011). The majority of fish come from Uganda’s five large lakes (Victoria, Kyoga, Albert, George and Edward) (MAAIF, 2011), and there is great potential to improve aquaculture production, given that over 18% of Uganda’s surface area is made up of lakes, rivers and wetlands (UBOS 2020).
As a landlocked country, Uganda is entirely dependent on freshwater fish aquaculture. According to the FAO (2023), Uganda contributes 36.6% to the East African region and 5.73% to Africa as a whole, and is currently the leading aquaculture producer in the region, supported by a larger proportion of Lake Victoria.
The continued decline of capture fisheries in Ugandan lakes and rivers has necessitated the development of cage aquaculture, promoted by the Ugandan government as a development priority and supported by foreign partners (Kifuko, 2015), This increase is also mainly attributable to the arrival of foreign commercial aquaculture producers, the management of stocked community water bodies and the adoption of high-density aquaculture technologies (Musinguzi et al. , 2019) and the cage culture system in Uganda, which emerged in 2006 on Lakes Victoria and Kyoga, has now spread to other lakes and rivers (Mbowa et al., 2017; Musinguzi et al., 2019).
Previously, the sector was dominated by traditional extensive culture systems, it should be noted that aquaculture production methods have improved from extensive to semi-intensive and with the increased use of cage culture, this system has become intensive (Namatovu et al., 2018). Aquaculture production volumes are increasing due to rising fish prices, stagnant fish supply from capture fisheries, increased investment in cage culture, and aquaculture offers a more sustainable and viable solution to mitigate stress on wild aquatic ecosystems and meet current and future food demands in the region (UNEP, 2018).
Species raised in aquaculture in Uganda
Fig 3: Main fish species farmed in Uganda
Fig 4: Production rate of the main aquaculture species in Uganda
Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) has until recently been the most widely cultivated fish species in Uganda (Fig 3,4), due to its taste, easy reproduction and growth, with production reaching 98,471 tonnes in 2021 at a rate of 71.1% (Fig 4). In second place the North African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) with its ability to feed on organic matter available at household level make it widely acceptable among Ugandan fish farmers (MAAIF 2012) with a production in 2021 of 39,605 tonnes with a rate of 28.6% (FAO, 2023).
Conclusion
Uganda is a landlocked country, rich in surface water bodies and wetlands, which represents an opportunity for the country to meet the growing demand for fish through aquaculture and thus contribute to ensuring a healthy diet for Uganda’s growing population. Improving aquaculture production could be a reliable way of meeting the protein, micronutrient and essential fatty acid needs of populations in this country, with job creation and income generation.
Souce : Aquaculture Feed Magazine Africa. Volu 1, Issue 2. 2024.
Source photo : Aquaculture Society Uganda.
