Aquaculture Africa 2021

March 25 - 28, 2022

Alexandria, Egypt

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE IN SOUTH SUDAN

David Peter Mina Baya

 National Mininstry of Livestock and Fisheries

dodipeter@yahoo.com

 



 The COVID-19 pandemic- resulted in  an unsustainable fish value chain, exposing weaknesses in food production and changes in economies around the world. The effectsof  climate change  Fisheries and aquaculture  are multiple and vary from location to location. F isheries and aquaculture  provide nutritious food for  millions of people in South Sudan. all aspects of  the  fish supply chain are strongly affected by COVID-19 pandemic, with jobs and incomes and food security at risk. Although Covid-19 does not infect the aquatic species (Bondad-Reantaso et al., 2020) the small-scale fisheries are most affected by closed markets, no transport to markets, and therefore, fisheries cannot sell their product well; it affects the livelihood of all. O f course this  also  applies to   aquaculture; if the market is limited, people cannot sell their harvest;   also because of possible restrictions on traffic and transport.  Further,  some factories  may keep working but generally, the supply of all sort of inputs from materials to feeds are very limited and hampers the growth of fish culture if we  look into transport of fingerlings from nurseries to fattening farms. Aquaculture enterprises will develop with benefit from secured input supply chain. T he supply of  fish on  the  market for poor people may benefit from  an increased focus on fisheries . , COVID-19 has affected employment in fishery trade where business men and women decreased due COVID-19. In  addtion COVID-19 has affected  the  socio- economic  situation and its contribution to livelihoods in South Sudan  and thus also has affected the income of fishermen.  The production of captured fishery increased after/at COVID-19 while in aquaculture production in ponds decreased with lockdown effect, this could be due to closure of borders and supply of inputs like feeds, fuel, and transport . T here is  a  great change in supply and price from  fish compared to  before COVID-19 while  the demand for fish decreased as the price, increased.  Men were not affected since there is increased number of men in fish trade, while women were greatly affected  as   number of women traders during COVID-19 sales dropped sharply.and sales from the fisheries dropped with 60% compared to pre-COVID-19 times  .and study of impact of COVID-19 on Fisheries and aquaculture,we conducted a survey among many fisheries and famers,Transparency of policy response will help build trust in future of fish value chains and Markets and development of fisheries and aquaculture in South Sudan