Aquaculture in Zambia: The Current Status, Challenges, Opportunities and Adaptable Lessons Learnt from China

Abstract

As a land-locked country in Southern Africa, Zambia is rich in natural resources suitable for fish production. However, aquaculture is still in its infancy with enormous potential as most of Zambia’s fish now comes from capture fisheries. The aim of this study was to review the recent progress, status, challenges, and opportunities in Zambia’s aquaculture industry while drawing some lessons from China’s aquaculture experience, focusing on policy instruments, external support, quality seeds, and the investment environment for possible adaptation. To achieve this, we reviewed the existing literature about aquaculture in Zambia. This paper starts by reviewing the overall fishery sector’s developments based on the analysis of relevant statistics over decades before narrowing down to the aquaculture sub-sector. The review shows that aquaculture production has continued to expand significantly and will soon play a leading role in food and nutrition security in Zambia. However, the industry still faces major challenges relating to investments, science and technology, fish seed and feed, and an underdeveloped value chain besides the increasing demand for fish products. Nevertheless, great potential still exists to further develop the aquaculture sub-sector and meet the ever-growing demand for fish products caused mainly by the rapid population increase.