42 MARCH 2016 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG Network Connectivity. Mobile phones are accelerating ways in which farmers acquire, exchange, and maneuver information in developing countries, but around a million mobile phone users in rural Uganda access unreliable networks. More needs to be done to upgrade the network signal strength and bandwidth of mobile phone service providers. Maintenance Costs. Many farmers said that it is expensive to maintain and afford the services provided by mobile phones. Lack of access to calling credit is a problem faced by most fish farmers, because this hinders communication with customers and access to information about fish farming. Due to their inability to make calls no standard market prices have been set to be able to exploit price differences between major and minor markets. Awareness and Promotion. Farmers are usually not aware of application services they can access with mobile phones. Sometimes, they do not know who to call when they have problems with utilization of the few known services offered on their mobile phones. Therefore, most only make phone calls with their ordinary mobile phones. They lamented that poor promotion has prevented them from taking advantage of available mobile services for their farming activities. Farmer Information Needs Most fish farmers lack information on how to manage production. This has constrained aquaculture development in most rural areas of Uganda. For this reason, potential farmers have not started and others have become inactive because the usefulness of aquaculture has not been demonstrated. If the goal of improving food security is to be realized, practical actions are needed to ensure that farmers receive the technical support and guidance they need to benefit from fish farming. Farmers wanted regular access to training opportunities. A few farmers felt their needs and interests were not always met because trainings undertaken did not always completely cover the most important topics. They asserted that the information given to them was insufficient to advance their farm activities. Farmers noted inconsistencies in the information given to them by fisheries scientists during the trainings or visits. Some farmers found it difficult to be away from their farms and families because some trainings could take one or two weeks. Farmers also recognized that a lack of good recordkeeping and resources limited their ability to put into practice what they learned in the trainings. Farmers with experience in fish farming as a business are not always willing to provide assistance to other farmers. A few farmers have had extension workers from Kajjansi Aquaculture Research and Development Centre and district headquarters visit their farms but these have not been of great help to them. Farmers in Great Bushenyi acknowledged that technical guidance was provided by Community Knowledge Workers from Grameen Foundation, Uganda. Most farmers were frustrated by extension workers who are not available when needed. Therefore, farmers often rely on a combination of traditional knowledge and guesswork. Focus group interviews indicated that there is need for a wide range of information needs about aquaculture production. The broad categories of information required were common to all farmers, irrespective of location and species cultured and included marketing information, pond construction, pond management, stocking and harvesting, feed management, fry and fingerling production, and water quality management. Marketing Information. With an increasingly competitive and expanding market, the amount of marketing information needed daily by farmers is often underappreciated. Farmers in the five focus group interviews noted poor market infrastructure, unfair trading systems by middlemen, and poor prices as major drawbacks to better income. Farmers were interested in getting daily information updates on market prices, which enables farmers to make rational and relevant decisions. Farmers want market information in a form that is relevant to their decisionmaking. Those in charge of market information are not always trained for the job and end up providing information that is not of any help to farmers. When fish are ready for harvest, farmers inform potential customers by cell phones about the availability of fish. Some farmers look for customers through word-of-mouth or faceto-face advertisement because they find it easier than making telephone calls. A few farmers were frustrated by the high cost of middlemen who link them to buyers each time their fish are ready for harvest. Pond Construction and Management. Farmers acknowledged a lack of knowledge on planning and constructing a pond. Many farmers were broadly interested in knowing how to choose and prepare a site, construct a pond, locate a suitable drainage, determine the level of water a pond can accommodate, locate a good water source depending on the fish species cultured, and how to determine the best water control structure. Some ponds are poorly constructed due to a lack of technical advice (Fig. 3). Many fish farmers were concerned about learning how to measure water pH and alkalinity, how to determine the amount of lime needed, when and how lime should be applied, the kind of fertilizer to use, when and how fertilizer should be applied, which fish species should be farmed, what type of soil to use and how to maintain ponds. Stocking and Harvesting. Farmers lacked technical knowledge on proper fish stocking and harvesting techniques. Figure 2. Transcribing data.
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