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Aquaculture and inland fisheries flourish

2022-04-29  Eveline de Klerk

Aquaculture and inland fisheries flourish

Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms of freshwater, seawater or brackish water origins for various purposes such as food, ornamental and commodities.

In the Namibian context, aquaculture is literally understood as fish farming, mainly freshwater fish.

Globally, this sector plays a significant role in food production, income generation, community empowerment and resources utilisation, amongst others.

Although this concept is relatively new in Namibia, the government recognised and supported it as far back as the early 2000, and is starting to reap benefits from aquaculture.

According to statistics provided by fisheries minister Derek Klazen, fingerlings’ production in the country during the 2021/2022 financial year resulted in a distribution of 640 000 fingerlings to 87 small-scale fish farmers and government fish farms. 

He said the outreach programme also resulted in the training of 96 fish farmers and students, while a total of 33.5 tonnes of fish with a value of N$2 million was produced from freshwater aquaculture. The mariculture industry, on the other hand, produced 149.5 tonnes of oysters with a total value of N$11 million, despite the difficult financial circumstances.

The purpose of this programme is to promote the responsible and sustainable development of the aquaculture sector to achieve socio-economic benefits for those Namibians living alongside inland water bodies. The activities of this programme include but are not limited to the provision of advisory and extension services, hatchery establishment, fingerlings  production, distribution of fingerlings to subsistence farmers, land zoning, sea- based aqua parks, water quality monitoring, phytosanitary  testing, and research and training. 

Under this programme, eight research fish farms are currently operational, providing advisory (extension) service to farmers and producing fingerlings and full-sized fish for distribution.

Funds allocated during the 2021/2022 financial year were utilised for various activities such as research on aquaculture and inland fisheries, resulting in seven peer-reviewed scientific publications and five 

Master’s degree qualifications from research done at the Kamutjonga Inland Fisheries Institute. 


2022-04-29  Eveline de Klerk

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