World Aquaculture December 2018

52 DECEMBER 2018 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S.ORG Nearly 70 percent of the population is engaged in some form of agriculture, commonly on small farms of around 1 ha (WFP 2007, GOL 2012). Many households cultivate vegetables, beans and/or pulses in gardens as an important dietary component, with surplus production marketed to supplement household income (USAID 2016), which is among the lowest globally (< $460 per capita in 2016, World Bank 2018). Fish production and consumption are part of the Liberian agricultural tradition (Kpadeh 2012, FAO 2016). Aquaculture has been practiced in Liberia since the 1950s with a focus on pond culture dominated by a handful of species: Het- erotis niloticus, Oreochromis niloticus , Tilapia zilli , Sarotherodon galilaeus , Clarias gariepinus , Mormyrus spp. and Heterobranchus spp . (Kpadeh 2012, MOA 2015a, b). Most production occurs in small (200-400 m 2 ) subsistence ponds (Towers 2013, USAID 2016). The civil wars disrupted production, which reached 29 t in 1989, and did not return to that level until 2007 (Kpadeh 2012). New ponds are being constructed (Towers 2013) and expertise lost during the wars is slowly being recovered through training that includes practi- cal workshops and assistance initiatives (IFIDEP 2012, MOA 2015a, b). Liberians recognize the value of aquaculture and have targeted it as part of their 2009 Food and Agriculture Policy and Strategy. An aquaculture recovery plan, a National Fisheries Commission and funding programs have been developed, but implementation and sup- port has been limited (MOA 2014). Mobilizing Aquaculture to Facilitate Peace Between 2012 and 2014, Liberia was visited three times by faculty and undergraduate students from SSU. Most interactions occurred around Monrovia and Ganta, the largest and second largest cities in Liberia, respectively. During these visits the environment, people, culture, and aquaculture situation were observed and important insight gained. A network was forged. Friendships and trust were nurtured. A strategy to assess and increase aquaculture production in Liberia was cooperatively developed, coordinated by the main campus of UMU in Monrovia (Monterrado County). Three UMU campuses had potential for aquaculture production and have participated in the initiative : 1) Ganta, home to the Ganta United Methodist Mission Station (GUMMS), in Nimba County, 2) Gbarnga, home to the UMU School of Theology, in Bong County, and 3) Gbason Town, home to the UMU School of Agriculture, in Sinoe County. Involvement of the BNF was enlisted in 2016, particularly the main office in Monrovia and the hatchery in Klay (Bomi County). Conditions and resources varied among sites, but all exhibited the desire to increase fish production and nurture training experiences to help Liberians learn to grow fish successfully. Our aquaculture assessment, construction and training activities were disrupted by the Ebola outbreak in 2014-2015. Permission to return to Liberia was secured from the U.S. Department of State in 2016. A Fulbright Specialist Grant facilitated three visits of 14 days each to initiate construction and training efforts: in March during the dry season, in June as the rainy season started, and in December as the rainy season ended. Pond Culture at Ganta The GUMMwas established in 1931, approximately 260 km northeast of Monrovia and adjacent to the Guinea border. It hosts a K-12 school, hospital, offers clinical training for UMU nursing students and provides agricultural training and assistance. In 2006, a dam and pond (more accurately, a marsh) were constructed to provide a dependable, year-round supply of water to irrigate crops, primarily rice (Fig. 3). Fish naturally and passively colonized the pond as it filled during the rainy season (June to December) with water from the adjacent wetland. Commencing in 2008, as the dry season (December to May) ended, the pond level was lowered and harvested by traditional methods. In 2013, the harvest was quantified and yielded approximately 25 kg of fish retained for consumption. Multiple species of omnivorous tilapia, the lie-in-wait predatory African pike TABLE 1. Fishes collected and retained on 13 March 2013 by traditional harvest methods from pond at GUMM used primarily to irrigate rice ponds. Scientific name Common name Number observed Maximum TL (cm) Cichlidae (>4 species) Tilapia 100 12 Hepsetus odoe African pike 50 24 Clarias sp. African catfish 20 15 Mastacembelus sp. African spiny-eel 1 20 Macrobrachium sp. African river prawn 1 15 FIGURE 3. Pond constructed at GUMM in 2006 to irrigate agricultural crops passively fills with water and is naturally stocked with fishes during the rainy season. Photo: Nadine Budrow.