KARACHI: The successful farming of tilapia, an exotic fish native to Africa and the Middle East, presents Pakistan with an opportunity to explore its potential for aquaculture on scientific grounds, meets the growing demand for protein for its population and boosts its fish exports, said speakers at an event held on Tuesday at a local hotel.

The seminar-cum-launching of a handbook on fish farming was organised by country officials of the American Soybean Association (ASA) that collaborated with World Initiative for Soy in Human health (WISHH) to help implement a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) project, Feeding Pakistan, aimed at improving capacity, productivity and quality of the Pakistani aquaculture sector through the active participation of public and private stakeholders.

The aquaculture handbook titled Fish Farming and Nutrition in Pakistan.

Highlighting some facts about the state of fisheries in Pakistan, speakers said that Pakistan currently had the lowest seafood consumption rate (2kg per person per year) of any nation in the world that had a seacoast.

The country, it was pointed out, lagged far behind in fish production than regional countries and produced 650,000 tonnes of fisheries products per year; 465,000 tonnes from marine fisheries and 185,000 from freshwater catch and aquaculture.

“Under the USDA project initiated in 2011, an assessment of the entire Pakistan aquaculture industry was carried out and it was found that though Pakistan had an extensive system of inland fish farming, no commercial, high protein and extruded fish feed was produced in the country. Second, tilapia, the second most common fish being farmed in the world, was not being farmed here,” said country representative of ASA R.S.N Janjua.

To build interest in tilapia production, the US manufactured soy-based floating feed and fish seeds were provided to farmers in Punjab and Sindh for demonstrations and trials and Pakistani aquaculture industry leaders were trained in the US and Thailand, he added.

“The project has assisted around 2,000 fish farmers and helped increase the market value of tilapia produced from zero at the beginning of the project to an estimated Rs450 million in 2014. The good outcomes were achieved with soy-based feed fed to the fish that could achieve a weight between 700 and 900gm in five to seven months,” he said while sharing the success stories of fish farmers who experimented with tilapia.

Pakistan, he said, was a protein deficient country and soya bean had the highest protein content as compared to other food sources.

It was said that the specially formulated soy-based feeds were rich in proteins and nutrients that supported healthy and efficient fish growth, while producing less waste. Soybean meal, it was stated, cost significantly less than most animal meals, including fish meals and reducing feed cost was critical to improving efficiency and maintaining sustainability in aquaculture operations.

Chairman of the fisheries development board Faisal Iftikhar appreciated the USDA project and said that three million tilapia seeds, half of which were being produced in Pakistan, were now available to farmers that started with 50,000 seeds three years ago.

Pakistan, he regretted, had 1,100km long coastline but no efforts were made in the past to introduce marine aquaculture. “For the first time, we are introducing the first cluster of shrimp farming in the country,” he told the audience.

Over the concerns regarding introduction of an exotic species, Dr Kevin Fitzsimmons, an aquaculture specialist, said it was important to domesticate tilapia and this was being done in Pakistan. “It’s like chickens that you farm under controlled conditions. The fish seeds we had provided were genetically modified and had successfully passed through many trials,” he said.

US Consul General Brian G. Health said that the project would help strengthen US-Pakistan relationship and lead to economic development as more and more people would engage in the fish farming business.

Livestock and Fisheries Minister Jam Khan Shoro said that the soy-based feed with high protein content could help address the issue of over-exploitation of fish. “People making use of juvenile fish to produce meal for poultry would be encouraged to use soy-based feed. This would in turn help prevent over-exploitation of fish resources,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2015

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