Capacity building for environmentally sustainable, climate-resilient inland fisheries and aquaculture development in Namibia

Fisheries and aquaculture have an important role to play in supporting livelihoods and safeguarding food and nutrition security in Namibia.
The Intra-ACP GCCA+ Programme, in partnership with the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources of Namibia implemented a Capacity building project for environmentally sustainable, climate-resilient inland fisheries and aquaculture development.

This project which spanned from October 2018 to June 2019 trained some 37+ People from government institutions. As a result of the trainings, the following were elaborated:

• two project concept notes (on Climate adaptive integrated fish culture with water efficient drip irrigation; and Development of Inland Culture-based Fisheries in Namibia, respectively);
• one study on climate proof infrastructure redesign and
• four research proposals, namely on:

1.  mass production of fish under controlled environment conditions;
2.  Investigating the right time to administer Diflubenzuron insecticide to fertilised water in order to optimise the production of Rotifersas;
3.  Production of zooplankton as live feed for African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fry; and
4.  Search for sexually reproducing populations of Artemia salina in Namibia

It is worth noting that Artemia is one of the best feeds for catfish. However, it is not readily available in Namibia. Before, the Catfish was fed with boiled eggs but the rate of survival was of 1%. The tests carried out under this initiative showed that the rate of survival reached 95% when using artemia as feeding. This initiative also contributed to identify local sources of artemia for African catfish feeding. As a result, links were established between the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources and private supplier of Artemia.