Ghana National Aquaculture Development Plan (GNADP).

The Ghana National Aquaculture Development Plan (GNADP) is a sectoral plan with a national coverage to be implemented during the 2012-2016 period. It seeks to be a guide to improvements in production, marketing, environmental sustainability and social acceptability of Ghana’s commercial fish farm enterprises and related aquaculture value chain. The vision of the Plan is a strong basis for the accelerated development of a private sector-led aquaculture that enables this subsector to contribute significantly to fish food and nutritional security, employment generation, increased incomes, economic growth and poverty reduction, on a sustained basis. The Plan’s mission is to create an enabling environment that would facilitate and attract public and private investments into aquaculture, on a sustained basis; and its goal is to improve the practice, management and development of aquaculture as a viable business.
The Plan contributes to the country’s effort to address hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition by establishing a strong basis for the development of the aquaculture sub-sector in the country.
GNADP seeks to ensure significant increases in the commercial output of Ghana’s farmed fish; to increase the market share and value of commercially farmed fish; to improve the environmental sustainability of aquaculture-production, fish health and fish food safety; and to significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of public sector institutions in aquaculture development, policy making and regulation. In particular, the Plan will promote training, research, investments activities to strengthen the aquaculture sub-sector.
Further the Plan will contribute to the country’s effort to reduce poverty by promoting the creation of jobs in the aquaculture sub-sector.
Moreover the document seeks to increase the performance of large, medium and small commercial fish farms within high priority aquaculture zones and related enterprises in the aquaculture-value chain. In addition, the capacity of aquaculture associations to deliver improved services to and advocacy on behalf of member enterprises will be strengthened. It will also seek to provide funds and capacity building to fish farmers to promote inclusiveness and efficiency.
The Plan will enhance the national capacity to monitor water resource quality, farmed fish health, fish food safety and effects of climate change and pollution.
The Fisheries Commission of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is the lead agency responsible for the implementation of the Plan. It will collaborate with a broad spectrum of public and private institutions through a variety of institutional arrangements including subcontracts and public-private partnerships. In particular, the Plan provides an implementation matrix detailing the responsible institutions for specific actions, as well as timelines of implementation.