Aquaculture for African smallholders

Small scale aquaculture, Integrated farming, Aquaculture systems, Appropriate technology, Malawi, Agribusiness,

Development of Intensive Small Scale Farfantepenaeus Notialis and Melicertus Kerathurus Native Shrimp Hatchery and Culture in Cameroon

Intensive small scale farming unit of the marine shrimps Farfantepenaeus notialis and Melicertus kerathurus has been developed in Cameroon as a strategy for family aquaculture. The project started in 2008 at Kribi as an initiative from a Bakoko traditional Chief (Salomon Madiba) who organized AQUASOL Company with the scientific and technical support from Concepto Azul. This social project aimed to be also an environmental friendly model of shrimp aquaculture with native species. Wild broodstock was collected and kept under controlled conditions in experimental hatchery. Fertilization and hatching rates were high for the two shrimp species, greater than 90% and 80% respectively. Survival at PL20 stage was higher at 29° C (45 to 60%) than at 26° C (10 to 18%). The highest growth rate was observed at 25 ppt with an average weight about 0.25g for PL60 fed with a commercial feed and about 0.23g for PL60 fed with an artisanal feed based on fish processing wastes (viscera). The F. notialis animals have been successfully grown up to broodstock size (25g) and will be used as F1 broodstock. The next step of the project corresponds to the establishment of pilot unit for a one ton per year production that would be profitable at a family scale.Keywords: Fisheries Economics, Special Topics, Posters and Game Demonstration Session and Receptio

Stabbing News: Articulating Crime Statistics in the Newsroom

There is a comprehensive body of scholarly work regarding the way media represent crime and how it is constructed in the media narrative as a news item. These works have often suggested that in many cases public anxieties in relation to crime levels are not justified by actual data. However, few works have examined the gathering and dissemination of crime statistics by non-specialist journalists and the way crime statistics are gathered and used in the newsroom. This article seeks to explore in a comparative manner how journalists in newsrooms access and interpret quantitative data when producing stories related to crime. In so doing, the article highlights the problems and limitations of journalists in dealing with crime statistics as a news source, while assessing statistics-related methodologies and skills used in the newsrooms across the United Kingdom when producing stories related to urban crime

Factors influencing fish prices in southern Malawi.

Abstract Nine markets in the Southern Region of Malawi were studied. The prices of 79 separate purchases were compared for market type, species, form of preservation, total length, distance of retail market from the capture fishery of origin, and distance of retail market from the main commercial center of Blantyre. Interviews with retailers and consumers were conducted to help interpret price data and better understand marketing procedures. Average prices were significantly higher in urban than in rural markets. Fresh fish were found to fetch higher prices in rural but not in urban markets. In neither type of market, a premium was paid for a particular species group or for larger fish. The implications for aquaculture development in Malawi are discussed.

2000: The evolution of aquaculture in African rural and economic development

Abstract In Africa, aquaculture has developed only recently and so far has made only a small contribution to economic development and food security. We review developments and identify constraints to the expansion of aquaculture in economic and rural development at the continental, national and farm levels. Past development initiatives failed to achieve sustainable increases in production. In contrast, a growing number of smallholder farmers in many countries have been adopting and adapting pond aquaculture to their existing farming systems and slowly increasing their production efficiency. An evolutionary approach that builds on a fusion of local and outside participation in technology development and transfer appears more likely to produce fish production systems that are more productive and more environmentally and socially sustainable in the long term

Aphyosemion campomaanense Agnèse, Brummett & Caminade, 2009, new species

<i>Aphyosemion campomaanense</i> new species <p>(Figs. 4–10; Table 2)</p> <p> <b>Holotype.</b> MRAC A7-30-P-1, male, 36 mm SL (Fig. 4); Cameroon: Campo-Ma’an National Park, small stream under forest cover; 2.33735° N, 10.20435° E; J.-F. Agnèse, R. Brummett & P. Caminade, 21 January 2006. Site ABC 06/86.</p> <p> <b>Paratypes.</b> MRAC A7-30-P-2-21, 9 males, 26–40 mm SL and 11 females 33–47 mm SL (Fig. 5 represents one of the females); same data as holotype. MRAC A7-30-P-22-24, 2 males 27-38 mm SL and one female 35 mm SL; Campo-Ma’an National Park, small stream under forest cover; 2.33372° N, 10.20322° E; J.-F. Agnèse, R. Brummett & P. Caminade, 20 January 2006. Site ABC 06/84. MRAC A7-30-P-25-26, 2 males 31–34 mm SL; Campo-Ma’an National Park, small stream under forest cover; 2.34210° N, 10.16753° E; J.-F. Agnèse, R. Brummett & P. Caminade, 20 January 2006. Site ABC 06/83. MNHN (2007- 1533-1534) one male and one female, 41–43 mm SL; Campo-Ma’an National Park, small stream under forest cover; 2.34210° N, 10.16753° E; J.-F. Agnèse, R. Brummett & P. Caminade, 20 January 2006. Sampling reference ABC 06/83. MNHN (2007-1535) one male, 31 mm SL; Campo-Ma’an National Park, small stream under forest cover; 2.35508° N, 10. 15188° E; J.-F. Agnèse, R. Brummett & P. Caminade, 21 January 2006. Site ABC 06/85. MNHN (2007- 1536-1541) three males 30–39 mm SL and three females, 30–55 mm SL; Campo- Ma’an National Park, small stream under forest cover; 2.34790° N, 10.16948° E; J.-F. Agnèse, R. Brummett & E. Kornobis, 24 January 2007. Site ABK 07/179. MNHN (2007- 1542-1545) three males 29–39 mm SL and one female, 29 mm SL; Campo-Ma’an National Park, small stream under forest cover; 2.33270° N, 10.19335° E; J.-F. Agnèse, R. Brummett & E. Kornobis, 24 January 2007. Site ABK 07/180.</p> <p> <b>Diagnosis.</b> <i>Aphyosemion campomaanense</i> is distinguished from congeners by a combination of coloration characteristics. The new species is distinguished from <i>A. ahli</i> (Fig. 11) by a much more pronounced and darker blue background color than any <i>A. ahli</i> population (Fig. 64 & 65, Pl. 50) in Amiet (1987). The background color is here defined as the color that covers the majority of the body. In addition, <i>A. ahli</i> has a caudal fin with symmetric coloration while in <i>A. campomaanense</i> the caudal fin coloration is asymmetrical with a yellow lower margin and a white upper margin (vs. red and yellow margins in <i>A. ahli</i>). Although such asymmetric caudal fin coloration is occasionally observed in <i>A. ahli</i> (the upper margin sometimes being reduced to only the red part), the red and yellow lower margin is always present. In <i>A. campomaanense</i>, this margin is only yellow. Finally, the pectoral fins in <i>A. campomaanense</i> are deep orange vs. pale yellow in <i>A. ahli</i>.</p> <p> <i>Aphyosemion campomaanense</i> is distinguished from <i>A. lividum</i>, Fig. 12, by striped dorsal and anal fins vs. unstriped fins; and red dots aligned like vertical stripes posteriorly <i>versus</i> no red punctuation posteriorly.</p> <p> The new species is distinguished from <i>A. edeanum</i> by an obvious blue vs. reddish background color; asymmetric caudal fin coloration with a yellow lower margin and a white upper margin vs. red and yellow margins (as in <i>A. ahli</i>); and deep orange pectoral fins vs. transparent or pale blue.</p> <p> <i>Aphyosemion campomaanense</i> can be distinguished from <i>A. heinemanni</i> by a more pronounced blue background color; asymmetric caudal-fin coloration with a yellow lower margin and a white upper margin vs. a semicircular red sub-margin on a rounded caudal fin; and the presence of red dots on the anal fin <i>vs.</i> no dots. <i>Aphyosemion campomaanense</i> can be distinguished from <i>A. pascheni pascheni and A. pascheni festivum</i> by the presence of vertically aligned red dots in the posterior vs. scattered weak red spotting; red dots on the anal fin vs. no dots; red stripes on the dorsal fin <i>versus</i> no stripes; yellow lower margins vs. white on the anal and caudal fins; and red vertical stripes on the caudal fin vs. a series of red dots (<i>A. pascheni pascheni</i>) or straight lines or series of dots along rays (<i>A. pascheni festivum</i>).</p> <p> <b>Description</b>. See Figs. 4–10 for general appearance of <i>A. campomaanense</i>, Table 2 for morphometric data of holotype and paratypes.</p> <p> <b>Body and fin morphology.</b> There is little sexual dimorphism in body form and allometry in body growth (visually checked on the data matrix) in <i>A. campomaanense</i>. The dorsal-fin deviation to anal fin (D/A) is the same in male and female: towards the rear, closer to the end of the anal (usually D/A= 6–7). Dorsal and anal fin shapes in the male and female differ only by the male fins being wide and triangular while the female fins are rounded. In contrast, caudal fin sexual dimorphism is strong with a lyre shape with extended filaments in the male and a round shape in the female.</p> <p> <b>Meristic characters.</b> Measurement data are summarized in Table 2, (D=10.73, A=14, D/A=6.84). These are not diagnostic and are within the average values reported for other species of the <i>A. calliurum</i> species (Huber, 2000).</p> <p> <b>Coloration of live males.</b> The dorsal surface is light brown. The head, laterally pigmented with light blue has three oblique red bars on the operculum, a sub-ocular red line and anterior and posterior infrabuccal red bands. The flanks vary from light blue to deep blue with a metallic sheen. Two or three horizontal lines of discontinuous red dots extend along the forequarter of the flanks. Towards the posterior, red dots merge progressively to create large irregular vertical bars. The dorsal fin is blue with dense red stripes forming oblique lines transverse with respect to the rays. The pectoral fins are orange. The anal fin is light blue-green with red stripes forming oblique lines transverse with respect to the rays. On the anal fins of young males are three superimposed longitudinal marginal bands of red, white and yellow. The external yellow band is not always present; this point will be detailed later in the text under “distribution and variability”. The caudal fin coloration is asymmetric. Background coloration is light blue with broad vertical red bands, which exhibit high individual variation in terms of number and shape (interrupted or not). The upper margin is white with one to three rays often extending to form a long extension. The lower margin is yellow with a sword-like extension. The fin coloration pattern on the pelvic fins is identical to that of the anal.</p> <p> <b>Coloration of live females.</b> The females have a grayish yellow body on which two horizontal bands of red dots are present on the anterior third of the body and narrow brown vertical stripes on the posterior twothirds. Two or three oblique red bands are present on the operculum. All fins except pectorals have pale yellow glints. Red-brown inter-radial dots are densely and regularly spread throughout the dorsal and the caudal fins. On the caudal fin, these dots are distributed in concentric arcs. The anal fin shows traces of interradial stripes. The pelvic fins are edged with light blue glints.</p> <p> <b>Coloration of ethanol preserved males and females.</b> Body light grey in the posterior part and around the belly to dark grey in the dorsal area. All red spots of live specimens remain. The yellow color in the male caudal-fin turns to white. The pectoral fins are transparent in both sexes.</p> <p> <b>Karyotype.</b> Two specimens were karyotyped, one male (population ABC 06/83, site 18, Fig. 1 & Table 1) and one female (population ABC 06/84, site 20, Fig. 1 & Table 1). More than 20 metaphases per specimen were analyzed to determine the diploid number and 15 complete karyotypes were made to classify the chromosomes according to their morphology. No differences were found between the male and female karyotypes (i.e., morphologically differentiated sex chromosomes are absent). <i>A. campomaanense</i> was characterized by a diploid number of 44 chromosomes and a fundamental number (of arms) of 58. Chromosomes were classified according to their morphology (Levan 1964): 15 pairs of acrocentric chromosomes almost equivalent in size, 6 pairs of subtelocentrics decreasing in size, and one pair of short heteromorphic chromosomes, (one submetacentric and one metacentric; Fig. 13). Further analysis is required to determine if the observed size polymorphism is due to different amounts of heterochromatin as commonly observed in fish chromosomal studies (Völker <i>et al</i>., 2007). Such a chromosomal formula, with 44 chromosomes, has until now never been observed in any of the <i>A. calliurum</i> species group, with <i>A. edeanum (A. ahli</i> from North of the Nyong River in Scheel, 1990) previously identified as the species with the highest number of chromosomes, 2n=40 and NF=58, Scheel (1990).</p> <p> <b>Phylogenetic relationships.</b> The 29 sequences obtained (GenBank references EU272795 to EU272816 and EU885232 to EU885237) permitted the construction of a phylogenetic tree (Fig. 3) representing the relationships between <i>A. campomaanense</i> and its closest congeners. Specimens of <i>A. campomaanense</i> coming from six different locations all grouped together in a highly supported clade. This assemblage was clearly differentiated from all the other species and particularly from <i>A. ahli</i> and <i>A. lividum</i>. Taking into account that all <i>A. ahli</i> haplotypes (largely representative of the overall variability of the species throughout its range) are grouped together and that <i>A. edeanum</i> occupies an intermediate position between <i>A. ahli</i> and <i>A. campomaanenese</i>, the new species cannot be part of the <i>A. ahli</i> gene pool. It is also apparent from the tree that <i>A. campomaanense</i> is genetically distinct from <i>A. lividum</i>. These observations indicate that <i>A. campomaanense</i> is a distinct new species.</p> <p> <b>Distribution and vaiability.</b> The complete distribution of <i>A. campomaanense</i> is not well known because a large zone north of the Campo-Ma’an National Park still has not been sampled, mainly because no road or even track exists. <i>A. campomaanense</i> has been found in 7 locations, 5 of them inside the Campo-Ma’an National Park where it occupies the western part up to point ABC O 6/86 (2.33735° N, 10.20435° E). To the east and north, the species is replaced by <i>A. cameronense</i> (Boulenger, 1903).</p> <p>The species is also present in the vicinity of Nkoelon (ABC 05/55, 2.37042° N, 9.95850° E), a few kilometers west of the park and also a few kilometers northward (ABK 07/183, 2.43089° N, 10.11654° E) outside of the park. Up to now, this species has not been collected south of the Ntem River in Equatorial Guinea, but its presence there cannot be ruled out.</p> <p> Unlike <i>A. ahli</i> (Fig. 11) or <i>A. edeanum</i>, which show significant inter-population morphological variability (Amiet, 1987), <i>A. campomaanense</i> populations vary only in regard to some minor differences in anal and caudal fin coloration. For example, males from the population ABC 06/83 (site 18, Fig. 1) exhibit no yellow band in the anal fin (Fig. 6). In some male specimens of population ABK 07/181 (site 20, Fig. 1) the yellow band can disappear partially (Fig. 7) or totally (Fig. 8) with age (between the ages of six months and one year). Males of other populations keep their yellow anal fin band throughout their life (Fig. 10). Among individuals within a population, caudal fin coloration varies in the number (usually 3– 5) and shape (interrupted or not) of the large red vertical bands, which can be used as fingerprints to identify individual males. These bands also vary with age (Fig. 7).</p> <p> <b>Ecology.</b> Like most of the <i>A. calliurum</i> species group, <i>A. campomaanense</i> is usually found in small streams and shallow pools in the rainforest. They usually stay close to the banks, avoiding the deepest and fastest water. Among killifish, <i>A. campomaanense</i> is sympatric with <i>Aphyosemion (Chromaphyosemion) lugens</i> Amiet, 1991, <i>Epiplatys infrafasciatus</i> (Günther, 1866) and <i>Procatopus nototaenia</i> Boulenger, 1904.</p> <p> <b>Etymology.</b> From Campo-Ma’an, in reference to its origin in the Campo-Ma’an National Park, Southwestern Cameroon.</p>Published as part of <i>Agnèse, Jean-François, Brummett, Randall & Caminade, Pierre, 2009, Genetic characterization of the Aphyosemion calliurum species group and description of a new species from this assemblage: A. campomaanense (Cyprinodontiformes: Aplocheiloidei: Nothobranchiidae) from Southern Cameroon, pp. 43-59 in Zootaxa 2045</i> on pages 50-57, DOI: <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/186435">10.5281/zenodo.186435</a&gt

African aquaculture: Realizing the potential

Despite 40 years of research and development, and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, aquaculture is struggling to realize its high biophysical potential in Africa. Hampered by ineffective institutional arrangements and donor-driven projects, the substantial gains in desperately needed food security and economic growth predicted by development agencies have generally not been achieved. Nevertheless, African aquaculture has demonstrated its competitiveness, producing fishes that feed low on the food chain in a range of well-adapted, environmentally friendly and profitable farming systems that meet the needs of a broad spectrum of user-groups. Key constraints to broader growth include lack of good quality seed, feed and technical advice; poor market infrastructure and access; and weak policies that, rather than accelerate, impede expansion, largely by emphasizing central planning over private sector initiative. If African aquaculture is to make substantial and much needed contributions to the continent's development, government policy should attempt to facilitate the alleviation of key constraints and rely more heavily on commercial investments to lead future growth. Evidence to date indicates that a pragmatic business approach focusing on small and medium-scale private enterprises would produce more benefits for more people than centrally planned and government led development projects.