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Promotion of sustainable commercial aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Volume 1. Policy framework.











Ridler, N.; Hishamunda, N.Promotion of sustainable commercial aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Volume 1.Policy framework.FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 408/1. Rome, FAO. 2001. 67p.


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    Promotion of sustainable commercial aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Volume 2: Investment and economic feasibility 2002
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    This volume of the report on the promotion of sustainable commercial aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa discusses the difficult access to investment capital, one of the major obstacles to the development of sustainable commercial aquaculture in the region. The problem arises from a lack of collateral, excessively high interest rates on loans, bankers' perceptions that aquaculture carries a particularly high risk of failure, a lack of knowledge, by farmers, of the modalities of applying for loans and a lack or limited information, on the part of lenders, of commercially successful aquaculture enterprises in the region. While some of the lenders' perceptions are valid, particularly in instances where the industry is not yet established and difficulties could occur as a result of local unavailability of necessary inputs, the market is untested and there are no examples of commercial success that could offer an indication of viability, preliminary evidence seems to indicate that banks tend to exaggerate the likelihood of failure of commercial aquaculture projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Borrowers need to be able to formulate and present their business proposals in a precise and concise manner that effectively offers the lender a comprehensive picture of the proposed business, communicates how they expect to profit from the proposed enterprises and generate the funds for the repayment of the loans sought. The problem of collateral could be tackled through the use of “no-collateral” strategies such as group lending, village banks and solidarity groups, alternative collaterals such as titled land and moveable property, which in many cases bespeaks the need for legal and regulatory reforms and through government loan guarantees. When affordable, government loan guarantees and subsidized interest rates could also be used to lessen the problem of high interest rates.
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    Book (series)
    Promotion of Sustainable Commercial Aquaculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Volume 3: Legal, Regulatory and Institutional Framework 2001
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    This document identifies elements of a legislation that will encourage the emergence of a sustainable commercial aquaculture. The aquaculture law of an individual country must provide the operator with a secure right to conduct aquaculture operations, to the property on which the farm will be located, to good quality water and to the produce. It must also ensure environmental sustainability, through permit or licence systems, without imposing unnecessary costs on applicants. Only proposals with the potential for serious environmental harm should be subjected to a full environmental impact assessment. Environmental supervision must extend to controls over the use of exotic species and products from modern biotechnology including genetically modified organisms, disease control and health management and to any water quality concerns created by the proposed project. To minimise costs, countries are encouraged to adopt a single window approach for the numerous approvals usually required for an aquaculture operation and screen initial applications. They could also consider creating a single agency to promote aquaculture and to monitor the progress of applications. Aquaculture regimes of selected African countries are measured against the elements required to encourage sustainable commercial aquaculture, and improvements that are applicable to all countries in sub-Sahara are suggested.
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    Promotion of sustainable commercial aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Experiences of selected developing countries - Promotion de l'aquaculture commerciale durable en Afrique subsaharienne. Expériences de certains pays en développement 2001
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    This paper presents reports of studies on commercial aquaculture which were commissioned in Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia in Africa, and Costa Rica and Honduras by the FAO Fishery Development Planning Service. It also includes a summary which discusses the main points of each original report. For commercial aquaculture to develop in the region, major interventions priorities would be required in the area of: (1) Credit: adapted credit lines should be developed for aq uaculture. To achieve this, banks need to be convinced of the profitability of commercial aquaculture; (2) Enabling economic environment: changes in government policies are needed to help develop commercial fish farming, especially through tax incentives, import facilities and better permit handling; (3) Feed supplies: the technology for fish feed production based mainly on local products needs to be codified in practical form to provide for the development of a proper fish feed industry.

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