The Agricultural Research Centre of the University of Ghana, has developed an aquaculture project to produce tilapia on commercial quantity to serve as a source of funding for the Centre.
The project, also known as Cage Fishing, involves sinking of cages into a river and stocking them each with up to 5000 fingerlings and providing
them with feeds to develop into mature tilapia within six months.
The Centre is undertaking the project on the Volta Lake near its (centre) boundaries at Kpong in the Greater Accra Region.
Professor Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, outgoing Vice Chancellor of the University, who cut the sod to inaugurate the project at Kpong on Thursday,
tasked the Centre to develop the project into a viable commercial entity to provide funds to support its activities.
Prof. Kwame Afreh-Nuamah, Director, Institute of Agriculture Research of the University, said that the Centre would provide researchers with first hand information on challenges facing fish farmers in the area and how best to help them to overcome such challenges.
Prof. Afreh-Nuamah said that already, eight cages, all stocked with 5000 fingerlings had been sunk into the lake.
"This means, if things work well, by the next six months, the ARC should be harvesting 40,000 tilapia" he said.
Prof. Afreh-Nuamah said that according to the facility, the minimum weight of each tilapia would be 350 grams.
He said that immediate customers for the tilapia would be the University community before extending it to other markets.