Climate Smart Aquaculture: A Sustainable Approach to Increasing Fish Production in the Face of Climate Change in Nigeria

Abstract

As the global population increases, demand for food, most especially protein will increase. Production from fisheries is crucial for food security in the face of current population increase. Despite the reliability on fisheries and aquaculture to supply the animal protein needed by the world population, climate change has significantly reduced production and increase instability in the sector. In order to achieve food security and fisheries development goal, climate smart aquaculture which is an adaptation to climate change and lower emission intensities per output will be necessary. This review therefore discusses climate smart aquaculture as veritable approach to increasing fish production in the face of climate change trend in Nigeria. A number of changes already evident can be attributed to climate change; drastic change in weather condition, reduction in water levels, changes in hydrological regimes of inland water, heavy wind storm, excessive sunshine, increased incidence of flooding and drought. The effects of these changes have resulted in changes in ocean fish productivity, fish disease infestation and reduction of production from inland and aquaculture systems. Climate smart adaptation and mitigation strategies has helped to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities and ecosystems, examples of such strategies include adopted strategies in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria where about 80% of fish farmers were reported to have adopted strategies such as use of tarpaulin/tank ponds during dry weathers, about 70% have adapted by adjusting time of stocking while 60% stocked fish species that can better adapted to climate change impacts. Other adaptations strategies include erection of cover/shades over ponds, digging boreholes/wells to supply water during dry weathers and well-structured drainage system to guide against flooding. Integrated aquaculture is also an important adaptive measure which has gained huge popularity in Nigeria. The use of low carbon producing energy source in the production and processing of product from aquaculture is a viable means to mitigate against climate change, example include the use of gas or electricity rather than charcoal in fish smoking. Aquaculture waste water treatment before discharge is also a good mitigation practice been recently developed. Climate change will have significant impacts on fisheries and aquaculture in Nigeria. Climate smart aquaculture will respond to these changes by boosting adaptive capacity and resilience both of communities and the ecosystems on which they depend. It is important therefore to ensure adaptation and mitigation in response to climate change so as to safeguard sustainable fish production and food security improvement. effects of these change has resulted in elevated water temperatures [3], which affects fish physiological processes, thereby affecting spawning, survival of the juveniles, recruit into the exploitable phase of population, population size, production and yield [4]. The impacts of increased flooding of ...

Aquaculture Development in Nigeria: The Second Biggest Aquaculture Producer in Africa

“…In 1951, a 160-hectare industrial-scale fish farm was established at Panyam near Jos for the culture of carp [3,17]. Today's production comprises subsistence ponds (500-800 kg/ha/a), homestead ponds (1000-1500 kg/ha/a), commercial farms (5000-20,000 kg/ha/a), and recirculation aquaculture systems (300-400 kg/m 3 /production cycle of 4-6 months) [16].…”

“…Climate change has been placed on the front burner of developmental policies and global governance [16,[56][57][58][59][60] (Onu and Ikehi, 2016; Onada et al, 2021). Effects include drastic changes in weather extremes (Wang, 2023), changes in hydrological regimes of inland water, and increased incidences of flooding and drought [56,[61][62][63].…”

“…These effects obviously affect fish productivity [63,64]. Fish disease infestation is also on the rise and has reduced aquaculture productivity [16].…”

“…[68] posited that the impacts of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture in Nigeria still basically rely on observations, projections, and the experiences of other countries due to a lack of quantitative data. Several authors point out that issues relating to climate change and aquaculture are not presently prioritized in Nigeria [16,60]. Areola and Fakoya [71] confirmed a lack of national attention regarding the aquaculture sector in terms of national policy and strategic planning on climate change, which is brazenly threatening the potential of these subsectors.…”

“…This is because of the good climatic conditions, favorable land, and desirable aquatic resources. Currently, over 60,000 ha are existing ponds [9,16].…”