The government-run Kenya Marine & Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) has developed a genetically improved Nile tilapia strain through a selective breeding program, touting the new breed’s faster growth rate, higher body weight, and ability to resist disease and withstand certain effects of climate change compared to previous strains.
The new Nile tilapia strain (Oreochromis niloticus), according to the institute, allows Kenya’s commercial fish farmers to bolster the production of quality fingerlings, increase national aquaculture output, and help the country balance its fish import-export ratio by producing more high-quality products domestically.
“This improved strain will substantially increase fish production and productivity, positively impacting fish farmers’ livelihoods when supplied to the farmers and seed multipliers,” KMFRI Researcher Jacob Abwao said.
In Kenya, fish production, on average, totals 165,000 metric tons (MT) annually – far below the estimated nationwide demand of 475,000 MT Nile tilapia comprises 80 percent of the fish farming in Kenya.
That deficit of 310,000 MT has created profitable openings for China and other leading global fish producers, regardless of temporary bans, to increase their exports to the East African country.
Reports indicate that the value of Chinese-exported fish to Kenya increased by 25 percent in 2022, reaching an estimated 14.8 million kilograms of fish with an approximate market value of KES 2 billion (USD 14 million, EUR 12.5 million).
This is despite Kenya, a nation with a population of around 53 million people, having a per-capita fish consumption of 4.7 kilograms per person annually– less than half of Africa’s average of 10 kilograms per person annually and the global average of 20 kilograms per person per year.
To tap into that lucrative market with locally made products, instead of solely relying on imports, Kenya is one of just a few countries in Africa to have recently embraced selective breeding programs that align with the WorldFish Centre’s genetically improved farmed tilapia (GIFT) technology – based heavily on procedures used for Norwegian salmon breeding.
Egypt, Ghana, Malawi, and Zambia are other African nations that have embraced selective breeding technology with any measure of success, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
For example, besides the Kenyan breeding program, the technology has contributed toward a new strain of three-spotted tilapia in Zambia, as well as strains of Nile tilapia in Ghana and Egypt.
FAO has attributed Egypt’s commercial success with tilapia and the country’s rapidly expanding farmed fish production to its selective breeding using GIFT technology.
The new Kenyan strain, also referred to as SAG-F8 – a reference to the Sagana Fish Center in Central Kenya where the selective breeding occurred – outperformed two other fish strains during KMFRI-led studies: the super YY strain (KAM-YY) from Kamuthanga Fish Farm and a local strain (LOC-T) obtained from Siaya County on the shores of Lake Victoria.
The three strains were “stocked in fertilized earthen ponds measuring 300 square meters in triplicates at three fish per square meter and fed on a 35 percent crude protein diet for 180 days,” according to Abwao.
Although there was no significant difference in mean weight gain between the SAG-F8 and the LOC-T strain under similar conditions, the KAM-YY strain had a significantly lower mean weight gain compared to the other two strains.
The body protein content in the SAG-F8 fish strain also was the highest among the three, followed by the LOC-T strain and KAM-YY strain, respectively.
The study’s main conclusion was that “the impact of genetic improvement has been demonstrated to influence growth and feed efficiency, as well as body composition,” Abwao said.
The successful selective breeding of the SAG-F8 strain builds on other private sector initiatives to increase the supply of high-quality fish seed for aquaculture entrepreneurs to begin seeking lucrative ventures in Africa instead of outsourcing.
Lake Harvest Group, one of the largest integrated tilapia operations in Africa, with farming operations in Lake Kariba and Lake Victoria, signed an agreement recently with U.S.-based Spring Genetics for a five-year broodstock supply.
Lake Harvest, part of the African Century Group with distribution entities in seven African countries, would have exclusive rights under the agreement to high-performing Nile tilapia broodstock from Spring Genetics and a license to produce and sell sex-reversed fingerlings to third-party farms, according to an earlier statement.
Photo courtesy of Lake Harvest Group
