Canadian Feed The Children (CFTC) and Association of Church Development Projects (ACDEP) have for the past six (6) years been jointly implementing the Resilient and Sustainable Livelihood Transformation (RESULT) Project in Upper East and Upper West Regions of Ghana. The project worth CAD$19 million is financed by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

The project covers four main intervention areas including Crops, Livestock, Marketing and Income generating activities and Aquaculture with Gender, Climate Change and Environmental concerns being integrated alongside.

https://cdn.ghanaweb.com/imagelib/pics/48230645.jpg" width="348" height="261" />Aquaculture was a grey area that the project explored to ascertain its potential, acceptability and practicability in northern Ghana; noting that post-colonial efforts to promote this venture failed to see the light of day.

 RESULT Project is near completion and as part of the exit strategy and to sustain the gains of aquaculture in the Upper East, a regional aquaculture forum was held in Bolga on the 11^th and 12^th October, 2017. The forum, which brought together water resources experts as well as government officials and fish producers, was themed: “Aquaculture Development in Upper East Region: the Role of Stakeholders.” The event was meant to sensitise stakeholders on the potentials of aquaculture in the region; for participants to share experiences and for ACDEP and CFTC to showcase the gains made so far under the RESULT project in the face of challenges and to solicit commitment of all stakeholders to aquaculture development in the region. The forum also sought to prepare an action plan for implementing strategies to increase aquaculture investment, production, processing and marketing in the Upper East region and to agree with key stakeholders and partners’ specific actions for handing over the project’s aquaculture activities to key stakeholders and institutions.

In his opening statement, the Executive Director of ACDEP, Malex Alebikiya said studies and work done in the region over the years clearly indicates that as a region we are not sufficiently using our water bodies for economic activities. We spend a lot of money, supported by donors, to construct dams and then we allow them to go waste except for livestock watering and construction purposes. “If we have to make a case for government’s investment in more water bodies in the region, then we have to be able to demonstrate that the current water bodies can be put into economic use and that is where we thought that there are two ways in which we can use the existing water bodies – economic activities in the water, and that is where aquaculture comes in, and economic activities around those water bodies, and that is where the dry-season gardening comes in.” stated the Executive Director.

https://cdn.ghanaweb.com/imagelib/pics/83352671.jpg" width="363" height="272" /> Addressing the forum, the Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Ayine Bukari, assured development partners at the forum of his cooperation for the continuous development of the region. “The Regional Coordinating Council’s doors are opened. As a servant of the people, my doors are opened. I’m prepared to serve you. Even if is midnight, if you call me, I will be ready to come out.” The Regional Minister observed with worry that fish supply in Ghana had been unacceptably low. Ghana, according to the statistics he quoted, locally produces only 400,000 tons out of the 1 million metric tons of fish it consumes annually.

“Fish is an important food product in Ghana, accounting for 60% of the national animal protein needs of the population. The deficit in fish supply in the country has been the concern of all stakeholders including government, researchers and development partners over the years. The initiative of the RESULT Project to increase fish production in the region to boost incomes of farmers and serve as an alternative livelihood support system is, therefore, very laudable and timely,” he observed. He entreated the private sector to join the fish business to help bridge the chronic deficit in supply.

“As a government, we concede that it would take the collective efforts of all stakeholders to tackle the challenges in the aquaculture sub-sector. As an underdeveloped sub-sector, many opportunities abound which require the involvement of varied stakeholders along the entire value chain. I wish to call on the private sector to consider investing in aquaculture so as to adequately produce fish to meet the widening demand gap,” the Regional Minister appealed.

A number of challenges that confront aquaculture in the region were highlighted at the forum, with specialists also bringing to light some measures taken thus far to address the challenges.
The challenges mentioned were “reduction in water levels, buffer zone invasion through farming activities, underdeveloped market for locally produced tilapia, high-priced feed, predators, poaching and input sourcing” among others.

Making a presentation at the gathering, ACDEP’s aquaculture specialist, Peter Kwame Akpaglo announced some containment measures which his sector had put in place against the threats. Some of the measures were:

• harvesting water when the water level is still high;
• sensitisation of water users association on judicious use of water during the off seasons;
• encouraging grassing and cropping outside the buffer zone to minimise siltation;
• training of groups on fish processing and preservation methods to provide alternative market for the locally produced fish;
• provision of predator nets for project communities and provision of security to forestall poaching.

https://cdn.ghanaweb.com/imagelib/pics/24974418.jpg" width="341" height="255" />The forum noted that aquaculture has a great potential in the Upper East Region which can be harnessed for economic benefits leading to reduction in unemployment and increase in food security. It was observed that the RESULT Project has increased fish production, household incomes and improved household nutrition in beneficiary communities.

 At the end of the forum, stakeholders pledged to support and promote sustainable development of aquaculture in the Upper East Region. It was recommended that the district assemblies should incorporate aquaculture development into their medium-term development plans and support interested entrepreneurs with capital, to invest in the aquaculture value chain, under the Small and Medium-scale Enterprise programme.

A similar event was held earlier in the Upper West Region on 8^th and 9^th August 2017, where similar commitments were made by stakeholders to support, promote and sustain aquaculture activities in the Upper East Region.