FEATURE STORY:  Fall 2006

Prospective fish farm operators from the United States and eight other countries met with ambassadors and other perspective fish farmers at the United Nations in August to learn more about raising tilapia for economic development. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations presented “Fish Farming as a Sustainable Development Instrument for Low-income Communities” in addition to an abbreviated version of a University of Oklahoma Outreach sponsored fish farming institute held in May in Ponchatoula, La. Participants at the Louisiana institute received instruction on how to combat poverty and advance economic development by learning how to establish fish farms in their home countries.

“Teach a man how to fish….” was the theme of the four-day Fish Farming and Aquaculture Institute sponsored by the Infopoverty Institute of the University of Oklahoma Outreach and its partner, The Observatory for Cultural and Audiovisual Communication based in Milan, Italy. Both organizations have been active within the United Nations working to reduce poverty through sustainable development.

John Steffens, Ph.D., executive director of the Infopoverty Institute at University of Oklahoma Outreach, came up with the idea for the institute. Through travels in the Caribbean, he and his staff recognized the potential of fish farming to supplement diets. Tilapia is a high source of protein as well as the oldest known fish food. The goal of the project is for attendees to use their newly gained knowledge to establish small locally run fish farms to supply an additional source of protein and income to residents in rural, low-income villages. This is one way to contribute to achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal of reducing the world’s hunger rate by half by the year 2015.

Teams and individuals from the United States, Barbados, Canada, Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, Madagascar, Nigeria and Trinidad convened at the Rosaryville Spirit Life Center in Ponchatoula, La., for the institute. Instruction covered the fundamentals of establishing a fish farming industry that would be suitable for developing countries. Content included discussion on farm location, financial resources, site preparation, environmental conditions, governmental regulations, transportation and market demands.

The group received hands-on experience at the Til-Tech Aquafarm located in nearby Robert, La., where owner Stephen W. Abernathy shared the wisdom of his more than 15 years experience in raising tilapia for farm production and shipping tilapia fingerlings throughout the world. According to Abernathy, “Fish farming is not rocket science. It is part science, research, hard work and part art.”

Abernathy encourages future fish farmers to build a relationship with a nearby university and its professors as he has from the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, at Baton Rouge.

The Infopoverty Institute is a unit within the OU Outreach College of Continuing Education that facilitates the use of connectivity to support effective access to, and use of, information that will improve life conditions in impoverished communities around the globe.

– Susan Grossman