– A sector with much promise, says NAAG President Beni Sankar
Aquaculture or fish farming has been around for a while and the consensus among the fisheries sector stakeholders is that increased focus can stimulate growth of the sector. President of the National Aquaculture Association of Guyana (NAAG), Mr. Beni Sankar, who has been engaged in aquaculture for the last three years, told the Guyana Chronicle that great potential is there, bearing in mind what is taking place with deep sea fishing.
“The market is increasing and aquaculture is an area with a lot of promise,” Sankar said.
The fisheries sector in Guyana contributes approximately three percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Guyana, earning between US$50M and US$55M over the last five years.
Moreover, the sector employs close to 1,300 people and, with continued emphasis on the development of aquaculture, the sector is expected to contribute significantly more to the advancement of Guyana’s agricultural thrust.
Sankar stressed that development of the economy is a guarantee and pointed out that NAAG had estimated that, by 2015, aquaculture would be a major contributor to the national economy.
He expressed optimism that it would be realized, at the latest, sometime around 2020, if all goes as it should.
He explained that Guyana has many characteristics that make it suitable for aquaculture, including vast amounts of unpolluted freshwater resources, relatively large acreages of flat land, year-round warm water temperatures, suitable agriculture by-products for feed production, drainage and irrigation infrastructure, availability of unskilled family labour and the presence of suitable species.
Additionally, Sankar noted that Guyana has an existing processing and marketing chain for seafood, which previously catered to the marine captures fisheries.
The NAAG President said, “The processing facilities are there, but the marketing is different. We have more work to be done, but we are seeing promise. At some of the fast food places overseas tilapia is the more popular fish.”
Continued support for aquaculture, he said, will be facilitated through the Agriculture Diversification Programme (ADP), which is being piloted by the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to him, the programme under the ADP makes provisions for support, which include technical support and other resources.
Sankar observed that these include helping farmers on the ground to set up ponds and assisting with marketing.
Farm-grown fish, particularly tilapia, as well as pacu and hassar, some of the newest farm-raised species, are being produced through aquaculture.
The ADP is being funded by the Inter-American Development Bank at a cost of US$21.9M, with counterpart funding from the Government of Guyana of US$1.1M.  The programme targets an increase in the export of non-traditional agricultural commodities. It also seeks to establish services and institutions to facilitate a sustainable increase in the income derived from the export of non-traditional agricultural exports, such as aquaculture products, fruits and vegetables and their by-products, and the livestock sub-sectors such as beef. Other areas of focus under the APD are peppers, pumpkins and plantains – touted as the Four Ps.
Also, as of the last few years, Sankar explained that NAAG in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and the United States Agency for International Development / Guyana Trade and Investment Support (USAID/GTIS) project, have been targeting aquaculture as a means of diversifying the future of Guyana’s agricultural economy.
Fish Farming and LCDS
With all the right support, the NAAG President stated that aquaculture will do more that just enhance the fisheries sector and improve the economy.
More importantly, Sankar said it will contribute to the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), being advanced by President Jagdeo.
Sankar said “green water aquaculture”, where algae is introduced into the ponds and assist in the reduction of carbon in the atmosphere.
Experts have reported that nearly all algae have photosynthetic machinery and so produce oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis.
“The more algae the more oxygen is produced and the more carbon is taken out of the atmosphere…this is a good undertaking in many ways,” he said.
The LCDS realigns the whole development of the country on a low-carbon path: development of hydro-electric power, sustainable forestry, investment in ‘low-carbon’ sectors such as fruit, vegetables, low-impact mining and eco-tourism, as well as aquaculture.
Sankar said market reports indicate that aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing food production enterprise, with growth rates of 8 per cent per annum, coupled with projections for long term sustainability.
He said, “The increase are tangible and because we operate on a semi-intensive system sustainability is not a problem. A semi-intensive system is where we do not too many fishes in one pond so the probability of diseases is reduced.”
Moves in Aquaculture
The Aquaculture Unit was established in March 2008. The unit has acquired a new state- of- the-art semi- intensive Tilapia hatchery and aims to facilitate the rapid development of aquaculture in Guyana through the provision of technical assistance and fingerlings at reduced cost to farmers.
Additionally, some 64 persons including fishermen and inland fish farmers were trained in various aspects of aquaculture, during the year and 20,000 fingerlings of Red Tilapia were produced since the commissioning of the Tilapia Hatchery in August 2008.
Sankar observed that there have been significant moves in the sector and progress is continuing.
There were also two training workshops in Aquaculture last year:
•    Training in Shrimp Production done by Mr. Thom, a Japanese Consultant (from JICA). Staff members, fishermen and some Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) students benefitted from the training
•    Training in Arapaima and Tambaqui done by Brazilian experts. Staff members, fish farmers and University of Guyana, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry staff members attended and benefitted.
On the cards for this year is the acquisition of a vehicle and an excavator to further expand aquaculture by supporting interested farmers.
Sankar made it clear that there are several opportunities in aquaculture and pointed to the fact that it is a good tool for diversification and ensures a continuous flow of income for the man, or woman, on the ground.
Currently there are several fish farmers and the current administration has identified several areas for aquaculture activities, including Mahaica and Mahaicony, Region Five (Demerara/ Mahaica), and different locations in Region Six (East Berbice/ Corentyne).
“When we are properly established the infrastructure will be there for rice farmers, in particular, to diversify what they do. They can set aside a part of their rice field for fish farming and the farmer will be supported by the ADP…the bottom line is that it will ensure that the farmer has income and not have to wait on harvesting of rice to get paid,” he said.
The NAAG President noted that the getting back to basics, an activity Guyanese have been engaged in for years, this time on a much wider scale, can only be a plus.
History in Fish
The first reliable accounts of attempts at aquaculture in Guyana can be traced back to the early East Indian inhabitants of the Corentyne Coast near the Berbice River estuary. These persons, and their present day descendants, practice a type of aquaculture that takes advantage of natural tidal inflows during high tides. Sea water is allowed in and the juveniles, larvae and eggs of many brackish (salty) water species – swamp shrimp, snook, cuffum, mullet – are trapped in coastal swamps or specially constructed ponds where they remain until they reach a marketable size.
In the 1940’s, freshwater aquaculture first started in Guyana. The government wanted farmers to try raising fish alongside other agricultural practices, such as in irrigated rice fields or flooded sugarcane fields, and introduced Mozambique Tilapia to Guyana. But these ideas were pushed into the background as focus was turned to the potential of marine capture fisheries.
To explore this new idea of raising marine species, in the 1950’s the Onverwagt Brackish Water Station was established, but due to a lack of government support, this facility declined, and was eventually abandoned altogether. The remnants of the ponds can still be seen today as one drives along the main road on the way to Rosignol.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that renewed interest was shown in freshwater aquaculture through the establishment of three stations by the Department of Fisheries and a joint International Development Research Center/Guyana Sugar Corporation venture. New fish species, including Nile Tilapia, Grass Carp and Red Swamp Crayfish, were introduced and attempts were also made to raise indigenous species such as Hassar. The project pushed forward in the 1980s when the government stations supplied tilapia for some 500 private ponds in Guyana, however, these activities had no long-term success.
During the 1990s several factors led to another renewed awareness of aquaculture. Guyana was experiencing difficulties in marketing traditional agricultural exports (rice and sugar) and shrimp yields were declining. Diversification studies were conducted and results pointed to aquaculture.
In 1997, Guyana’s National Development Strategy stated that aquaculture development should become a priority, because of its potential to positively impact social and economic development by creating jobs and generating income. In October 1997, a Food and Agriculture Organization aquaculture specialist visited Guyana and worked with the Fisheries Department to outline proposals for aquaculture development; one recommended establishing a freshwater station.
The freshwater station became a reality in 2001, when the four-acre Mon Repos Aquaculture Station was custom-built to conduct research, produce fingerlings (small fish, roughly the size of a finger, used to stock aquaculture ponds) and provide training and information on site selection, pond preparations and farm management.
Beginning in 2004, the Food and Agriculture Organization introduced a project to Guyana that would, similar to the experiments of the 1940s, combine aquaculture with the production of rice by small farmers. In 2005, the Guyana Rice Producers Association also began a rice-fish project to improve the standards of living in rice farming communities. Both projects successfully introduced aquaculture to small rice and cash crop farmers, and resulted in tilapia being sold in local markets.
While the rice-fish projects were ongoing, Guyana once again began earnestly looking at aquaculture as a feasible agricultural sector. In 2005, the Inter-American Development Bank identified aquaculture as a sector for fast track development; in 2006, a tilapia market study, coupled with several feasibility studies, concluded that tilapia aquaculture would be a profitable economic venture for Guyana.
Aquaculture in Guyana has been morphing and evolving through the years, and the sector is now able to build upon past mistakes and successes while rapidly moving forward. Looking to the past, it was recognized that a lack of public-private sector collaboration in aquaculture usually resulted in minimal progress that was often disjointed and uncoordinated. To remedy this, in 2006 the National Aquaculture Association of Guyana (NAAG) was formed by an eclectic group of private farmers, feed producers, fish processors, lending agencies, government bodies and donor groups.
The association meets weekly to collectively (and from many viewpoints) discuss a range of topics. One moment the conversation is about technical issues such as sexing fish and producing suitable feed, and the next it turns to identifying markets and transportation logistics. The partnership has been the main driving force for aquaculture development over the past year, and successes have been many.
With guidance and assistance provided by USAID/GTIS, the association has been focusing on a market-led strategy.
The general objective of NAAG is to en-sure fish produced in Guyana is as competitive as fish produced in any part of the world.
Sankar stressed that he is optimistic as it relates to aquaculture’s success in Guyana.
Historical source: The National Aquaculture Association of Guyana (NAAG)