Let
us be frank with ourselves , Nigeria is the most
populous country in African with estimated 170million people and with enormous
water resources which is capable of feeding herself , export first to
other African country and to the rest of the world.
In
fact the population of the country with its water capacity both inland and
coastal, enormous freshwater in river, lakes, spring and other aquiver sources.
Brackish water component in the delta creek, Lagos lagoon and other sources as
are available in the Nigeria. The marine component with Atlantic ocean spanning the southern border
and extending offshore at least within
the 200 nautical miles are enough to
achieve high quantity of fishery resources can be harvested
by combination of fishing (capture)and
aquaculture .
The
fact that the natural aquatic resources are continuously depleted on the daily basis
and aquaculture practices are increasingly been developed to complement and supplement
the shortfall from the natural water resources.
Food
and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nation in a recent reports confirmed that aquaculture have potential of
increasing food fish for the benefit of humanity.
The
potential of dams and reservoirs in
Nigeria are enormous, every state of the federation have dams and reservoirs
that are mandated for the purpose of fishing, water supply, irrigation ,tourism and hydroelectricity are presently working grossly underutilized
.The Minister of Water Resources on a visit to Oyan Dam in Ogun State few days’
ago stated that the project is zero percentage completed and that the project
are not been used for the purposes
they were established and as such a
redirection of efforts are
ongoing to make the dam work for mass food production, employment generation, integrated
agriculture ,irrigation ,improved fishing and aquaculture for the benefit of
the country on a long run and contributes to diversification of the economy at this time of declining oil revenue.
With
well over 1000 dams and reservoir spread all over Nigeria and grossly
underutilized especially in the area of aquaculture production even though the
fishery of the dams are on the decline.
Nigerian
as a people must wake up to maximized the benefit of the water resource available in different part of
Nigeria from Ede-Erinle Reservoir and Asejire
Reservoir(osun tate),Bakolori Dam,(Sokoto State) Challawa Gorge Dam(kano State),Dadin-Kowa
Dam(Gombe State) ,Goronyo Dam,(Sokoto
State),Ikere
Gorge Dam(oyo state)Jebba Dam(Niger state),Jibiya Dam(Katsina State),Kafin
Zaki Dam,Kainji Dam(Niger state ),Kiri Dam(Adamawa State),Oyan River Dam(Ogun
State) Shiroro Dam(Niger state),Tiga Dam(kano State),Zobe Dam(Katsina State), to
mention but a few , all combined have capacity to provide enough fish food for
the country and also can provides estimated 4millions job within a very short
time.
Ikere
gorge dam located in Ikere, Iseyin local government, Oyo state Nigeria for
example have over 660million cubic meter of water, a fraction of which if
dedicated to aquaculture would require over 1billion fingerlings of diversified
fish species particularly tilapia and catfish and others that are native or indigenous
to the dam this will provide over 6000 jobs in and around the dam community.
Effort
are required from government to solve
social amenities such as good motor-able road to the dam, electricity for the
inhabitant to jump start value chain
that will enhance the value of the farmed fish. Development of tourisms,
irrigation, water supply and other social essentials. All, in addition to
reduction on aquaculture input and equipment tariff, human capital development,
improved insurance policy framework, friendly single digits loan.
These
will encourage investors from all over the world to come and invest in large
scale aquaculture production , providing
millions of jobs for unemployed youth ,contributing to poverty alleviation,
reduce malnutrition and also
contributing to government income generation drives .
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