“Integrating BOMOSA cage fish farming system in reservoirs, ponds and temporary water bodies in Eastern Africa”

Project summary Project full title: Integrating BOMOSA cage fish farming systems in reservoirs, ponds and temporary water bodies in Eastern Africa Project acronym: BOMOSA Keywords: aquatic farming, participatory approach, socio-economic models Project abstract: The BOMOSA Project will research the economic viability, social acceptance and necessary institutional environment of a relatively simple technology that has been proven technically feasible over the last two years. BOMOSA is pioneering small scale fish farming in Eastern Africa by establishing rural aquaculture networks (coordinated in a “hub and plot” system) to economically integrate aquaculture with agriculture. The BOMOSA system will form the basis of a socio-economic model that will contribute to poverty alleviation in Eastern Africa by providing sources of supplementary high protein food and additional income to rural communities in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. The 36-month project (october 2006-september 2009) involves four European partners: • two universities, a science academy and an NGO and • six African partners: two Kenyan universities and four government–run fisheries research centers from Kenya (2) and one each from Ethiopia and Uganda. The summarized scientific and technical objectives of the project are: • Apply a participatory approach to define targets in terms of economic viability and social acceptability at community levels for the new BOMOSA plots. • Develop and validate an evaluation method using remote sensing to assess and characterize water bodies for use as potential BOMOSA plots. • Set up fourteen BOMOSA plots and optimize the technology in three types of small (less than 5 ha.) water bodies within four eco-zones across Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. • Evaluate locally available, agricultural by-products and cost-effective processing technologies as a resource for sustainable production of low-protein fish feed. • Determine requirements and make recommendations for a legal and regulatory framework based on potential veterinary, public health and environmental impacts of BOMOSA. • Develop capacity building and dissemination material for the local community, relevant authorities and policy makers and the international scientific community. • Develop a socio-economic model for sustainable introduction and widespread uptake of the BOMOSA scheme in Eastern Africa.