With no record of fish farming in Nigeria before 1951, 69yrs later, Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of farmed North African catfish. This is one Nigerian success story that very few people know about. A #Thread of how past Nigerian governments made it happen. cc @asemota

Historically, there was no record of fish farming in Nigeria until 1951 when the feasibility of fish farming was tested at a small experimental Station in Onikan, Lagos & Panyam Catfish Farm, Plateau State. This was the beginning of Catfish farming in Nigeria.

Aquaculture was started in Nigeria by Govt (State and Federal) & its agencies with direct involvement in Catfish production. First, they with experimentation & operated experimental farms until 1971. They experimented for about 20 yrs before moving to a demonstration stage.

The govt then established demonstration farms in Ibadan, Akure, Umuna Okigwe, Itu and Opobo in 1971. Four zonal fingerlings production and training centres were established in Oyo, Umuna Okigwe, Panyam and Mando- Kaduna between 1978 &1980 with the support of UNDP.

The African Regional Aquaculture Centre (ARAC) was established at Aluu, Port Harcourt with the assistance of FAO to provide research support & training in Sub Sahara Africa. Catfish Farming was initially dominated by Govt with direct involvement in Catfish production.

River Basin Development Authorities (RBDA) were established to run commercial Catfish Farms and prove
the commercial viability of aquaculture as part of their functions. They also gave technical assistance in
the construction of ponds and provided inputs (fingerlings, feed etc).

During the period 1981-1991, efforts of Fed Govt to stimulate interest in aquaculture start yielded dividend & many private investors & State Govt went into Catfish Farming. However, it became obvious within 1991-2001 that aquaculture must be seen & managed like a business in Nig

The picture became clearer with the marginal success of Government Farms especially Agricultural Development Programmes (ADP) in most of the States that the private sector should take over commercial production while the Govt provides enabling environment.

Catfish farming gave Nigeria a niche in global aquaculture production. It's currently the 2nd highest producer of aquaculture products in Africa behind Egypt & the highest producer of African catfish in the world with over 160K tons in 2015 increasing output by 39% since 2010.

Estimates put the current production output of Catfish in Nigeria at over 253,898 metric tonnes per year. however, this amount is not enough for the Nigerian market. Value addition to catfish will have to be exploited in order to benefit more from this success.

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About Smoked catfish Fish: https://twitter.com/uwagbale_/status/1226752972257927168?s=19