Kenya and Ghana want Bangladesh's GIFT tilapia model for their fish farms

Kenya and Ghana want to draw on Bangladesh's experience in breeding and spreading Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia, the fast-growing strain known as GIFT. What interests the two African countries most is the way Bangladesh has joined government research institutes, universities, private hatcheries and fish farmers into a single production system.

John Kwanya Ngicho, assistant director at Kenya's State Department for the Blue Economy and Fisheries, said Kenya wants to build the same kind of framework for GIFT that government, research institutes, universities and private hatcheries have built together in Bangladesh. Kenyan officials believe such a structure would move both the breeding and the farming of the improved tilapia forward.

According to WorldFish, the international fisheries research organisation, within two weeks of a Kenyan visit to Bangladesh the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) wrote to the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) asking for technical cooperation on managing GIFT and on training the staff involved.

Universities in Kenya and Ghana also plan to approach Bangladesh Agricultural University about cooperation in research and training. That could open work together on developing improved fish strains, sharing research findings and training skilled people.

Experts say the real strength of Bangladesh's GIFT experience is not only the improved fry it produces but bringing everyone from the laboratory to the farm into one system, so that research reaches the field quickly and technology spreads in commercial farming.

To make it work in Africa, they say, the technology has to be adapted to local conditions: the environment, water quality, fish feed, disease management and the skills of farmers. If the plans go ahead, they would open new cooperation between Bangladesh and African countries in fisheries research, technology exchange and training, and give Bangladesh's fish-farming experience wider use abroad.

The report is by the Agricare24 desk, drawing on WorldFish.

Photo: W.A. Djatmiko / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0); Nile tilapia in floating cages on Ranupakis Lake, Indonesia.

Source: Agricare24