The fish-based farming system

Key messages The fish-based farming system occupies the edges of Africa’s water bodies along coastlines, lakeshores and the floodplains of river systems and provides a diversified, flexible and resilient livelihood portfolio for some 22 million sub-Saharan fisher-farmers with half of those living in extreme poverty. The fisheries operations provide 30 to 50 per cent of household income. System performance is under threat from land use changes that affect the quality, quantity and timing of the water supply, notably deforestation and the construction of dams upstream but also conversion to large-scale irrigation. On coasts overfishing is an issue. Maintaining the drivers of ecosystem productivity and especially the natural flooding regime is crucial. Governance inspired by traditional systems with strong involvement of the users in all stages of planning and management will facilitate development trajectories that are adapted to local context, favouring incremental rather than wholesale change

Agriculture · Biology · Fish · Fishery · Aquatic Ecosystems and Biodiversity · Land Rights and Reforms · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Ecology