Koforidua (E/R), July 21, GNA— Catfish production increased by 276.92 percent in the Eastern Region from 2018 to 2021 after the Fisheries Commission assisted producers with new technologies, extension services and training.
Mr Francis Barnes, the Eastern Regional Director of the Fisheries Commission, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency, said in 2018 the Commission recorded about 60 catfish farmers who produced a combined total of 836.91 metric tons.
However, by 2021, the number of catfish farmers in the region had more than doubled to 128, raising production to 3,151.91 metric tonnes.
Mr Barnes linked the increased production levels to a slew of activities and sustained assistance provided by the Commission to catfish farmers and farmers in general who expressed an interest in catfish production.
Among the support measures, he listed included provision of extension services, training in catfish hatchery management, promotion of and use of circular tarpaulin tanks, which were more effective for use than concrete tanks; and the provision of feed to farmers.
He stated that catfish farmers were trained on how to treat three major diseases: water mould, a fungal disease, motile Aeromonas, a bacterial disease, and indigestion, a nutritional disease that affected fingerlings and was discovered by the commission after farmers reported abnormal activity in their farms.
Mr Barnes advised that for every 1000 litres of water, 70 pieces of catfish fingerlings should be stocked in to reduce high mortality rates as fish compete for oxygen in the water when crowded.
He said the new measures introduced have minimised the difficulties catfish farmers used to face, such as travelling long distances to obtain feed, stressing that “they used to travel to Accra and Akosombo areas to buy feed.”
