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BACKGROUND
A. COMMON REACTION to the idea of commercial fish farming in Jamaica
is to question its appropriateness in a small country surrounded by the sea.
This island, however, has long been a heavy importer offish. The clear inshore
waters so attractive to tourists do not support a large marine capture fishery,
and many of the productive offshore fishing grounds near Central and South
American countries have been lost because of expanded territorial claims by
many of these countries. From 1973 to 1978, Jamaica, with a total population
of approximately 2 million people, annually imported an average of 15,000
metric tons offish. Imports would
likely have been even higher if foreign exchange had not been limiting. Thus,
an economically viable, local fish farming industry becomes more attractive.
Tilapia (Oreochromis) mossambica, locally known as the African perch, was introduced to Jamaica in 1949. It flourished in irrigation canals, and a low-input subsistence level of management was attempted in a few small ponds. By 1977, a small hatchery and research facility were constructed, but the viability of commercial tilapia farming had not been demonstrated. In that year Auburn University was awarded a technical assistance contract (AID/la-C-1166) for a USAID-sponsored Fisheries Development Project (532-0038), with Ken Randolph serving as Auburn's first resident advisor in Jamaica. Project objectives were to evaluate the economic potential of commercial fish culture in Jamaica and to increase Jamaica's institutional capacity to implement a fish production program. An existing 16-pond complex, with approximately 10 hectares of water, was acquired at the beginning of the project. Upgrading and expansion to 32 hectares were begun concurrently with the first production trials with monosex (male) Tilapia mossambica fed a commercial poultry ration. During the period of 1978 to 1979, more then 50 tons of food-fish were produced at this farm and marketed mainly through the government-owned Agricultural Marketing Corporation.
Because of the high production and the promising economic analysis of the management system, afollow-up project (532-0059), jointly funded by the Government of Jamaica and the USAID, was begun in late 1979 to stimulate the development ofwarmwater fish culture in the private sector. The following sections describe the growth of commercial farming of tilapia during the first 4 years of that project.
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'Assistant Professor, Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures and
International Center for Aquaculture, Fisheries Specialist, Jamaican Ministry
of Agriculture, and Research Associates, Department of Fisheries and Allied
Aquacultures and International Center for Aquaculture, respectively.