Kpong, June 11, GNA - The Agricultural Research Centre (ARC) of the University of Ghana (UG) has developed an Aquaculture Project to culture tilapia in commercial quantities to serve as a source of funding for its (ARC) activities.

The project, also known as Cage Fishing, involves sinking cages into a river and stocking them with up to 5,000 fingerlings and providing them with feeds to develop into mature tilapia within six months. The ARC is undertaking the project on the portion of the Volta Lake near its (ARC) boundaries at Kpong in the Greater Accra Region. Professor Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, the Vice Chancellor of the UG, cut the sod to inaugurate the project at Kpong on Thursday.

He appealed to the ARC to develop the project into a viable commercial entity providing funds internally to support its activities. Professor Kwame Afreh-Nuamah, Director, Institute of Agriculture Research of the UG, said the development of the project, apart from serving as a source of funding for the ARC, was also meant to provide researchers with first hand information on challenges facing fish farmers in the area and how best to help them to overcome such challenges. Professor Afreh-Nuamah said already eight cages, all stocked with 5,000 fingerlings each, had been sunk into the lake.

"This means, if things work well, by the next six months the ARC should be harvesting 40,000 tilapia," he said. He said according to the facility, the minimum weight of each tilapia would be 350 grams.

He said immediate customers for the tilapia would be the University community before extending it to other markets. 11 June 10