In June our CAT department, Dr Adrian Hartley, Alexander Boyle and Dr Callum Howard embarked to Liberia to begin the training of extension officers and fish farmers for the NAF01 project funded by The World Bank. The CAT department was accompanied on this training by aquaculture extensionist expert, Abudala Napuru, who is an expert in capacity building in Africa.
Our aquaculture consultants had the opportunity to visit Liberia to host a 7 day workshop for both aquaculture extension officers and regional aquaculture farmers held in the region of Kakata. Farmers were invited from 3 northern regions of Bong, Lofa and Nimba, with the aquaculture cooperative leaders selecting which farmers chosen for training.
For the first week, the training was both theoretical and practical, with interactive lectures being held at Brooker Washington Institute (BWI), Kakata, and practical sessions being held at a local farm, Gborfellah farm, owned by one of the training participants. At the farm, water quality practicals were shown to the participants, with testing kits on pH, alkalinity, salinity, turbidity and many more being set up with all farmers and officers being involved and trying their hand at using the kits.
The site was toured, with elements of Integrated Agriculture Aquaculture (IAA), and rice polyculture being discussed and explained to all participants. The use of Hapas in nursery ponds and lastly the production of local feed using an extruder were displayed and interactive hands on training provided.
For the second week, the training was held in Gbargna, bong county, with visits to Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI) and the Light for Liberia aquaculture centre. Practicals on hatchery and seed production were conducted as well as tours of the facilities paired with in depth explanations for the infrastructure and methods they were seeing.
Throughout the week, lectures were held on; Water quality, fish biology, seed production, site security and biosecurity, feed production and nutrition, polyculture and IAA to name a few. These were paired with practical elements for each topic to allow for participants to consolidate their knowledge. They were joined by 35 participants. 20 farmers and 15 extension officers
