Aquaculture in Guyana: There’s History in Those Fish

Tilapia. Pacu. Hassar. Seemingly strange words to the uninitiated, but they form the backbone of what will soon become recognized as Guyana’s newest crop: farm-raised seafood, produced through a process commonly called aquaculture. Thanks to a unique public-private sector partnership involving the National Aquaculture Association of Guyana (NAAG), the Ministry of Agriculture and the United States Agency for International Development / Guyana Trade and Investment Support (USAID/GTIS) project, aquaculture is on a fast track to diversifying the future of Guyana’s agricultural economy, but unbeknownst to many, aquaculture - in one form or another - has a history in Guyana that stretches back more than 100 years.

The first reliable accounts of attempts at aquaculture in Guyana can be traced back to the early East Indian inhabitants of the Corentyne Coast near the Berbice River estuary. These persons, and their present day descendants, practice a type of aquaculture that takes advantage of natural tidal inflows during high tides. Sea water is allowed in and the juveniles, larvae and eggs of many brackish (salty) water species - swamp shrimp, snook, cuffum, mullet - are trapped in coastal swamps or specially constructed ponds where they remain until they reach a marketable size.

In the 1940’s, freshwater aquaculture first started in Guyana. The government wanted farmers to try raising fish alongside other agricultural practices, such as in irrigated rice fields or flooded sugarcane fields, and introduced Mozambique Tilapia to Guyana. But these ideas were pushed into the background as focus was turned to the potential of marine capture fisheries.

To explore this new idea of raising marine species, in the 1950’s the Onverwagt Brackish Water Station was established, but due to a lack of government support, this facility declined, and was eventually abandoned altogether. The remnants of the ponds can still be seen today as one drives along the main road on the way to Rosignol.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that renewed interest was shown in freshwater aquaculture through the establishment of three stations by the Department of Fisheries and a joint International Development Research Center/Guyana Sugar Corporation venture. New fish species, including Nile Tilapia, Grass Carp and Red Swamp Crayfish, were introduced and attempts were also made to raise indigenous species such as Hassar. The project pushed forward in the 1980s when the government stations supplied tilapia for some 500 private ponds in Guyana, however, these activities had no long-term success.

During the 1990s several factors led to another renewed awareness of aquaculture. Guyana was experiencing difficulties in marketing traditional agricultural exports (rice and sugar) and shrimp yields were declining. Diversification studies were conducted and results pointed to aquaculture.

In 1997, Guyana’s National Development Strategy stated that aquaculture development should become a priority, because of its potential to positively impact social and economic development by creating jobs and generating income. In October 1997, a Food and Agriculture Organization aquaculture specialist visited Guyana and worked with the Fisheries Department to outline proposals for aquaculture development; one recommended establishing a freshwater station.

The freshwater station became a reality in 2001, when the four-acre Mon Repos Aquaculture Station was custom-built to conduct research, produce fingerlings (small fish, roughly the size of a finger, used to stock aquaculture ponds) and provide training and information on site selection, pond preparations and farm management.

Beginning in 2004, the Food and Agriculture Organization introduced a project to Guyana that would, similar to the experiments of the 1940s, combine aquaculture with the production of rice by small farmers. In 2005, the Guyana Rice Producers Association also began a rice-fish project to improve the standards of living in rice farming communities. Both projects successfully introduced aquaculture to small rice and cash crop farmers, and resulted in tilapia being sold in local markets.

While the rice-fish projects were ongoing, Guyana once again began earnestly looking at aquaculture as a feasible agricultural sector. In 2005, the Inter-American Development Bank identified aquaculture as a sector for fast track development; in 2006, a tilapia market study, coupled with several feasibility studies, concluded that tilapia aquaculture would be a profitable economic venture for Guyana.

Aquaculture in Guyana has been morphing and evolving through the years, and the sector is now able to build upon past mistakes and successes while rapidly moving forward. Looking to the past, it was recognized that a lack of public-private sector collaboration in aquaculture usually resulted in minimal progress that was often disjointed and uncoordinated. To remedy this, in 2006 the National Aquaculture Association of Guyana (NAAG) was formed by an eclectic group of private farmers, feed producers, fish processors, lending agencies, government bodies and donor groups.

The association meets weekly to collectively (and from many viewpoints) discuss a range of topics. One moment the conversation is about technical issues such as sexing fish and producing suitable feed, and the next it turns to identifying markets and transportation logistics. The partnership has been the main driving force for aquaculture development over the past year, and successes have been many.

With guidance and assistance provided by USAID/GTIS, the association has been focusing on a market-led strategy. (Pre-1990s efforts to introduce aquaculture in Guyana often failed because there was no market identified for the products being raised.) A demand for tilapia in the export market - especially to the U.S. - has been identified and NAAG has now set their sights on filling that need. NAAG, the Ministry of Agriculture and USAID/GTIS have also made significant progress in increasing hatchery capacity, improving technology for growing suitable fish species, increasing the availability of proper fish feeds and boosting technical and business skills training for those interested in aquaculture.

Aquaculture has a long history in Guyana, but its present incarnation is the most exciting and promising. Guyana’s natural resources, such as abundant land, water and high year round water temperatures are ideal for aquaculture. Guyana also has an existing processing and marketing chain for seafood that, because of the decline in marine fisheries, has excess processing capacity perfect for aquaculture products. The situation is attracting local and foreign investment for aquaculture development in Guyana.

To date, the work that has come from the public-private sector partnership within NAAG has produced three working aquaculture farms and attracted one U.S. investor looking to expand their organic aquaculture operations. Within two years this collective group of aquaculture farmers is expected to be exporting US$15 million in aquaculture products (mainly tilapia) into the U.S. market. And there are many opportunities to build upon these three farms, which will achieve higher exports, involve more farmers and help NAAG to realize their goal for the future: to make aquaculture Guyana’s leading economic sector by 2015.

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