A comparative assessment of the poverty impacts of pond and cage aquaculture in Ghana

Aquaculture is being promoted for poverty reduction in Low Income Countries. Theoretically, aquaculture can impact poverty directly by increasing income and food security of poor fish farming households, and indirectly by generating food and economic growth. However, there is limited empirical evidence of aquaculture significantly impacting poverty, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The emerging paradigm in aquaculture development argues that indirect poverty impacts from commercial small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are greater than direct poverty impacts on small-scale producers. This paper assesses the potential poverty impacts of small-scale pond aquaculture and SME cage aquaculture in Ghana, comparing the relative significance of their direct and indirect impacts. Non-poor small-scale pond fish farmers who have been trained and/or use better management practices (BMPs) (termed fish farming type A) are found to hold the most potential to impact poverty indirectly through generating economic growth. These indirect impacts are higher than the direct impacts on poor small-scale fish farmers and the indirect impacts from SMEs. The findings support the current move away from a narrow focus on poor producers. However, it is unclear whether the arguments for expanding support to include SMEs are fully supported due to the ambiguity of standard fish farmer categories. If type A fish farmers are categorised as 'commercial micro enterprises' the findings support the paradigm shift. However, it is more likely that these farmers lie between 'non commercial' and 'commercial' categories. A more nuanced approach to aquaculture development, accounting for the wide spectrum of farmers whose characteristics differ between contexts, is required.