With 18 free courses (Table 1) and over 150 tailor-made training videos on Nile tilapia and African catfish, howtodoaquaculture.com is a groundbreaking digital learning platform developed to transform the aquaculture industry in sub-Saharan Africa. This platform makes learning about aquaculture accessible and effective in East Africa and beyond. In combination with internship and vocational training programs offered at the Aquaculture Academy, no effort is spared by the Samaki Poa project to tackle one of the principal challenges facing the industry: access to practical aquaculture knowledge tailored to the specific context of sub-Saharan Africa.
East Africa is undergoing an economic and demographic transformation. These factors have been driving up total fish demand and imports of fish in the region. However, due to limited technical performance and challenging financial positions of fish farmers in East Africa, productivity and sustainability remain sub-optimal. It is difficult to find well-trained fish farm staff with practical knowledge, hindering the success of fish farms in the regions. Grossly underfunded, most education institutes lack the financials or structures to provide practical education to students. Quality internships and other practical learning environments are hard to find. As a result, many graduates lack sufficient practical expertise direly needed to take the sector to the next level.
To close this knowledge gap, local and global aquaculture experts joined hands under the name ‘Samaki Poa’, a 4-year project funded by Norad . The platform combines local solutions and international best practices, using footage recorded at fish farms throughout East Africa. In animations of 2-3 minutes, users learn about all key aspects of fish farming and take tests to assess understanding and enhance active learning. They are then awarded certificates as evidence of their efforts and competence. To ensure continuous access to relevant information, the platform also includes a comprehensive knowledge base where users can conveniently revisit information related to specific sub-topics when navigating through the different phases of production.
The digital and vocational training programs encompass not only the technical aspects of fish farming but also focuses on the business side of aquaculture where one learns the essential skills required to operate profitably and sustainably.
Anyone with a phone and internet connection can learn about aquaculture at their own pace. Within one year, over 2,500 individuals from 25 African countries have already registered and used the platform, demonstrating the significant demand and expansive potential of free, digital capacity building, far beyond East Africa.