1 Background

Fish is among Uganda’s third most important sources of foreign exchange (UBoS, 2013).The fisheries sector employs about 1,000,000–1,500,000 people directly and indirectly through fishing, processing and marketing.

Overall, it contributes to the livelihood of about 5.3 million people (MAAIF, 2012).
The sustainability of the fisheries sector has become vulnerable because sustainable fishing yields cannot meet the country’s ever increasing demand for fish.
Catches have averaged 350,000 tonnes/year over the last ten years while the country’s population growth rate is about 3.6 percent per annum (UBoS, 2013). It is also estimated that 75 percent of the major commercial species of export grade2 caught from Lake Victoria are exported, and only 25 percent is left available for the local market (Kabahenda and Husken, 2009).

2 Export grade refers to fish caught within the legal size limits and handled as recommended where major emphasis is placed on hygiene and cold storage.

National annual per capita fish consumption rates have consequently fallen from about 14 kg before 1990 to between 4 kg to 8 kg after 1990 (Ssegane, Tollner and Veverica, 2012).
Levels of fish supply have raised socioeconomic and food security concerns. To sustain the benefits from the fisheries sector, it is estimated that an additional 300,000 tonnes of fish should be produced from aquaculture (MAAIF, 2012). The likelihood of this being achieved under the current aquaculture setting is low.

The current aquaculture setup is characterized by isolated and widely dispersed smallholder operations.
There are about 10,000 ponds averaging 200 m across Uganda (FAO, 2005). Despite high levels of public investment to uplift the sector, aquaculture has failed to register a significant contribution to the national catch. Among the major bottlenecks that have continued to affect production are high investment costs, feed, seed, appropriate production systems and markets. Levels of pond production are consequently often low. The fact that fish farms are small, isolated and widely dispersed has further hampered the establishment of appropriate value chains.
Consequently, the Government of Uganda has shifted its development focus and it is now geared towards producing large volumes of fish from designated zones. The purpose of this approach is to stimulate sectoral development rather than just farm development.
The establishment of appropriate commercial production and marketing chains will help address the major bottlenecks currently affecting the expansion of aquaculture in the country. These are supplies of commercial feed and seed, development of appropriate production systems, marketing channels and access to technical services.
The government of Uganda is investigating the possibility of promoting small/medium scale aquaculture clustered in “Aquaculture parks” that shall be located within designated high aquaculture potential areas.
The location of these zones within areas of high aquaculture potential is to prevent haphazard development with a high likelihood of negative environmental consequences and subsequent failure. Essentially, the Aquaculture Parks will be concentrated areas of production that shall function as commercial industrial parks of fish production (Wathum and Rutaisire, 2008 and MAAIF, 2012).
This case study describes the governments steps to identify potential aquaculture areas/zones, and undertake feasibility and economic studies for land based and lake based aquaculture parks.