Sustainable Aquaculture Industry in Kenya: Mapping Inputs for Fish Feed, Constraints, and Opportunities for Youth Involvement

ABSTRACT

Aquaculture is one of the fastest‐growing food‐production sectors in the world, with the potential to supplement fish protein from the dwindling capture fisheries and bridge the supply and demand gap of aquatic food in most regions of the world. As a result, the government of Kenya promoted aquaculture through an economic stimulus program and achieved significant milestones in the sector's development over the last decades. However, aquaculture still faces a myriad of challenges in the area of feeds. Fish feed accounts for nearly 50% of the overall production expenses and is primarily imported despite the availability of local resources to spur aquaculture development. Among the opportunities for the growth of fish feed and aquaculture industry include the availability of fish feed ingredients, a youthful workforce, and various production technologies. The information disconnect between available resources and opportunities has limited youth recruitment into the sector. To bridge this gap, the study conducted interviews with key informants coupled with a literature survey to establish the distribution of locally available fish feed ingredients, technologies, constraints, and opportunities for aquaculture development. Findings revealed that the country's demand for fingerlings and fish feed estimates stand at 100 million and 100,000 MT. Available local fish feed ingredients can potentially produce between 141,200 and 470,667 tons annually, assuming different levels of competition from other sectors such as animal feed production that utilize the same ingredients. The country is endowed with various aquaculture technologies and opportunities for job creation, youth involvement, and development of aquaculture.