Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano
The Director General of National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Professor Lucy Jumeyi Ogbadu, has disclosed that the current demand for fish consumption in the country stands at about 3.2 million metric tons per annum.
Out of this, she said the country produces only 1.1 million metric tons, leaving a huge gap of 2 million tons in the supply of fish and fish products.
She was speaking in Kano on Wednesday during the graduation of 38 females from a local government area of the state that were all trained on fish spawning, breeding and management at the centre in collaboration with Bayero University centre for dryland agriculture.
“In 2014 alone, Nigeria imported 8,000 metric tons of fish and thereby employing foreign producers to feed Nigerians, thus depleting our hard-earned resources and foreign exchange. The gap in the supply of fish in the country is enormous,” she said.
The Director General, who was represented by state coordinator of NABDA, Mr. Kabiru Mamman Yusuf, said the challenges facing the country today are biological.
She said their solutions lie in biological research and knowledge to tackle the challenges of hunger, malnutrition, and infectious diseases of man, animals and plants.
She also mentioned others challenges as productivity and the scourge of climate change.
