South Africa has 26 Universities, 10 of which offer aquaculture or marine biology studies (FAO, 2016). However, the total number of aquaculture professionals produced compared to professionals of other sectors is too little. Aquaculture is one of the growing food production sectors in the world, yet, t he RSA aquaculture sector has performed below its potential and remains a minor contributor to the GDP. (FAO, 2016).
Currently, there is very limited literature available on aquaculture skills requirements for aquaculture sector in South Africa. Since the skills needs of the freshwater aquaculture sector are unknown or undocumented, it is difficult to develop suitable training material/courses for the sector. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to farmers and officials. The main objective of this study was to investigate both current and future skills that will be required by the fresh water aquaculture sector in KZN. These included both worker and farmer skills.
The study found that KZN Department of Agriculture and Rural development employs only one aquaculture professional and that 2 farmers out of 10 had tertiary qualifications in agriculture. This study concluded that t wo factors can be attributed to under performance of the fresh water sector, namely: lack of formal aquaculture skills qualifications and poor knowledge transfer. Consequently, without a comprehensive aquaculture skills development and knowledge transfer agenda, gaps in aquaculture skills development and knowledge transfer will continue.