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Background
The quest to achieve or sustain fish food security and nutrition will continue to be difficult to realize when efforts are directed only at increasing production without corresponding efforts at reducing post-harvest losses (PHL) in fish. In Nigeria, the burden of supplying local fish needs to ensure food security and nutrition is borne mostly by small-scale fishers (Table 1). While there are considerable efforts aimed at increasing production from SSF, an important aspect of reducing fish loss, especially PHL, has not been given desired attention. There are huge fish losses at PHL levels in the artisanal fisheries sector as the SSF are not able to keep pace with harvest and preservation. Traditional methods of sun-drying and smoking (using mud kiln) remain popular especially where the facilities supporting ice production are inaccessible due to poor electricity supply and the prohibitive cost of ice-making machines. In tropical environments such as Nigeria, fish spoils within 10-20 h. Fish by nature is subject to rapid deterioration once outside water because of its chemical composition, which may be made up of 70-84% water, 15-24% protein, 0.1-22% fat, and 1-2% minerals [1, 2]. Depending on the fish type, factors including high moisture and fat and protein contents promote rapid changes in quality in fish. Losses in fish without interventions could be as high as 27.3 ± 14.3% or more, while loss can be minimized as much as 14.7 ± 11.9% with interventions [3]. [ Table Omitted - see PDF ]
Table 1
Nigeria fish production by sectors (2000-2012) tonnes
S/no.
Sectors/year
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
1
Artisanal: sub-total
418,069
433,537
450,965
446,203
434,830
490,594
518,537
504,226
511,382
598,211
616,981
638,486
668,754
Coastal and brackish water
236,801
239,311
253,063
241,823
227,523
259,831
269,878
260,098
264,988
309,981
328,332
346,381
370,918
Inland: rivers and lakes
181,268
194,226
197,902
204,380
207,307
230,763
248,659
244,128
246,394
288,230
288,649
292,105
297,836
2
Aquaculture (fish farm)
25,720
24,398
30,664
30,677
43,950
56,355
84,533
85,087
143,207
152,796
200,535
221,128
253,898
3
Industrial (commercial trawlers)
23,308
28,378
30,091
33,882
30,421
32,595
33,778
26,193
29,986
29,698
31,510
33,485
45,631
Fish (inshore)
13,877
15,792
16,065
17,542
16,063
19,724
19,129
18,040
18,585
18,820
19,261
19,736
27,977
Shrimp (inshore)
8056
12,380
12,797
11,416
12,469