Madam Patricia Safo presenting the petition to the Deputy Minister, Ato Cudjoe
The founder of the Ghana Aquaculture Stakeholders, Patricia Safo, has called on the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development to as a matter of urgency reorganize and resource its Fisheries Enforcement Unit with human resource and logistics to effectively carry out its mandate of protecting local fish farms.
The founder of the group made the call on behalf of its members when she presented a petition to the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture following a sharp drop in local fish farming to help boost fish production and its consequent effect on local fish farmers and employment as a whole in that sector.
Presenting the petition to the ministry on Thursday, Ms Safo who is also Managing Director of Crystal Lake Fish, along the Volta Lake, said the government must be bold to ban all live and dead tilapia through the various borders into the country since it was a major contributory factor negatively affecting the production of local fish farms.
She said the mandate of the Fisheries Enforcement Unit should include inland capture fisheries, inland aquaculture and most importantly banning of imported tilapia whether live or dead.
She called on the ministry to ensure that vaccines were readily available at subsidized rates for local farmers to be able to revamp their businesses since the fish viruses were killing their stocks.
“Vaccination teams must be always available to assist farmers to handle vaccination properly”
The Crystal Lake Fish MD also asked the ministry to collaborate with the Attorney-General to prosecute all persons from both the private and public sectors who were guilty of breaking laws in the fisheries sub sector stressing that the government must ensure there is an even playing field for all farmers to use the same genetic materials and those found guilty punished
The Deputy Minister of Fisheries, Ato Cudjoe, who received the petition on behalf of the ministry assured the Ghana Aquaculture Stakeholders that their concerns would be addressed, adding that the government has already taken some steps to ensure sanity in the aquaculture industry.
He said the NPP government was committed to improving fish production
By Thomas Fosu Jnr