Improving Productivity And Profitability Of Smallholder Shrimp Aquaculture And Related Agribusiness In Nigeria
Introduction to Chapter One:
1.1 Background of the Study
In the fishing industry of most riverbank nations around the world, shrimp is the most significant export product. As long as biosecurity, productivity, environmental, and social criteria are effectively addressed, farming may be profitable and sustainable at every level. Governments and industrial supply chains are increasingly realizing the significance of marketing and value-adding as effective competitive strategies, as well as the importance of international food safety standards to maintain competitiveness and defend export market access (EJF, 2003). However, this study aims to increase biosecurity and enable compliance with product quality and food safety standards for export and premium domestic markets for “traditional” and “traditional plus” shrimp producers and associated supply chain micro-to-small enterprises (MSEs). As a provider of income, employment, and foreign cash as well as a factor in ensuring food security, agriculture continues to be crucial to Nigeria’s economic development. Because of this, it is believed that aquaculture has a lot of room to grow in order to meet the demands of the expanding home and foreign markets. Nigeria is one of the tropical nations with abundant shrimp resources.
Shrimps, primarily those belonging to the family Penaeidae, are among the many valuable living resources found in Nigeria’s coastal waters, according to Dublin-Green and Tobor (1992). Nigeria’s supply of shrimp is now derived from capture fisheries, with an annual output capacity of 12,000 metric tons (MT). There is a demand-supply imbalance due to the growing human population and the rising per capita demand for shrimp. Since the 1970s, shrimp farms have been created mostly in Asia and Latin America as a supplement to the underproduction of catch fisheries. Despite its inherently unsustainable and bad to the environment track records, the shrimp farming industry continues to expand into previously unpracticing places.
A potential new area for the development of shrimp farming has been identified as Africa. The Niger Delta, Tana Delta, and Rufiji Delta are three locations that have been chosen for this new aquaculture development because they are biologically significant and have a significant cultural impact (EJF 2004). Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, among other oil companies in Nigeria, has expressed interest in funding shrimp farming in the Niger Delta (Business Day 2004). Local fisheries experts have also supported investments in shrimp farming in Nigeria (Sogbesan et al 2004), and most recently, Sulalanka, a Sri Lanka consortium, obtained Federal Government of Nigeria and FAO approval to start inland culture of marine black tiger shrimp (This day 2008). Investment in shrimp farming is a high goal for research organizations like the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) (The Guardian 2008).
Despite the differences among these advocates for shrimp farming, they all share the same goal: increasing Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings through shrimp export. The potential shrimp producers never bring up the concomitant human rights violations, rising poverty in coastal communities, environmental harm, etc. that come with shrimp farming. If a sound policy framework and locally appropriate farming practices are not developed, Nigeria would suffer from these concomitant issues.
1.2 Statement of the problem:
Nigerian shrimp culture is still in various experimental stages, restricted to research facilities. In Nigeria, attempts were made to produce juvenile prawn species under regulated conditions, but they were unsuccessful (FAO 1980). The development of indigenous shrimp culture techniques stalled and remained stagnant until 2004 (Business Day 2004), despite the fact that fin fish culture was also in its infancy in Nigeria in the 1980s. It appears that the FAO’s unprecedented failure to farm shrimp somehow discouraged local aquaculturists from further coordinated, goal-oriented shrimp culture trials and investments vis-à-vis fish culture. From that point on (2004, specifically), a unilateral plan to import Asian-bred cultural practices gained traction. Unknown shrimp cultivation trial projects may have been conducted by research institutions during these years of latency, but they may have had little to no success. However, the focus of this study is on how to raise Nigeria’s smallholder shrimp aquaculture’s production and profitability.
1.3 Purpose Of The Study
The goals of this study are as follows:
1. To investigate techniques to increase the productivity and profitability of Nigerian smallholder shrimp farming.
2. To assess the degree of shrimp aquaculture practice in Nigeria.
3. To determine the constraints on Nigerian farmers’ development of shrimp aquaculture.
1.4 Questions For Research
1. How can small-scale shrimp aquaculture in Nigeria be made more productive and profitable?
2. How widely is shrimp aquaculture practiced in Nigeria?
3. What are the obstacles to Nigerian farmers’ development of shrimp aquaculture?
1.5 The Study’s Significance
The relevance of this study is as follows:
1. The results of this study will inform fish farmers and the general public about how to raise smallholder shrimp aquaculture productivity and profitability in Nigeria.
2. This study will add to the body of knowledge regarding the impact of personality characteristics on students’ academic achievement, forming the empirical base for further study in the field.
1.6 Analysis/restrictions Of The Study
This study will examine the degree of shrimp aquaculture practiced by Nigerian fish farmers while looking at approaches to increase productivity and profitability despite a number of constraints.
Restrictions Of Study
Financial restraint: A researcher’s ability to collect data (through the internet, a questionnaire, and interviews) and locate relevant materials, literature, or information is often hindered by a lack of funding.
Time restraint: The researcher will do this investigation together with other academic activities at the same time. As a result, less time will be spent on the research project.
References
2004 Business Day The Shell/USAID N266 billion Shaky Start shrimp project. BusinessDay Newspaper, Volume 3 (374): 1–2, December 13, 2004.
Marine Resources and Activities in Nigeria, 1992, Dublin-Green, C. O. and Tobor, J. G. Technical Paper No. 84 of the NIOMR.
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