Aquaculture In Nigeria

Site selection is a key factor in any aquaculture operation, affecting both its success and sustainability (Andi et al., 2013). This could be achieved through the use of geographical information systems (FAO, 2007). Developing strategies for aquaculture development entails assessing different areas by which fish production can be increased and sustained. Capture fisheries worldwide are generally perceived as being in crisis. The world capture fisheries have continued to decrease due to overfishing of natural stock, loss of biodiversity and climate change. Aquaculture is often seen as a solution to meet the increasing demand for fish and to offset the declining production from capture fisheries (Nguyen and Tran, 2012).

Nigeria economy entered

In 2014, Nigeria fish output from aquaculture and captured fisheries was 922,682 metric tonnes in 2014 (FAO, 2014) which is grossly inadequate to meet the demand. Though, import has helped to meet to some extent fish demand shortage of the nation, however, huge food importation is having negative effect on the GDP of the nation. Kamal-Ahmed et al. (2013) opined that for a country to have an increased GDP, her net exports must be positive whereas if they are negative the GDP will decrease. Nigeria imported over 1 billion USD worth of fish in 2014 (FAO 2014). Reservoirs and dams are constructed in Nigeria primarily for the purpose of providing water for domestic, power generation, drainage control and irrigation purposes; they equally serve as habitats for aquatic resources exploited for food, commercial and recreational purposes. However, there is little or no emphasis on their utilization for aquaculture development compared with most perennial dams in developed world that are used for onshore fish culture or used in raising fish offshore (De Silva and Amarasinghe,

Land has varied physical, social, economic, and geographical values which influences land use Rossiter (2007). Thus, land suitability analysis is a strategic planning tool of land use that can predict the expected benefits and constraints of productive land use and environmental degradation that might occur due to the use of land (Andiet al., 2013). While development and implementation of aquaculture site selection (zonation) strategies is now an established concept, the tools and methodologies for achieving such goals are still under development (FAO, 2007). The success of aquaculture is dependent on the site that has suitable qualities of soil, topography, hydrological indices, water and infrastructure