Uganda faces an annual fish deficit of over 500,000 tonnes, despite strong government efforts such as the National Development Plan (NDPIII), which aimed to add 300,000 tonnes by 2025 through aquaculture expansion. Although production rose from 1,000 tonnes in the early 2000s to 101,000 tonnes in 2022 (FAO, 2024; Musinguzi et al., 2019), the NDPIII target remains unmet, and production has since stagnated. Key barriers included poor-quality seed, limited access to affordable feeds, weak private investment, an overreliance on imported technologies, and severe fish health challenges. Moreover, hatcheries experience up to 100% mortality rates (Kasozi et al., 2024). These are exacerbated by over 3,000 cages on Lake Victoria with limited biosecurity. Sustainable solutions require strengthening fish health systems and rethinking aquaculture education and training to prepare competent professionals.
Through a VLIR-UOS-funded International Masters in Aquaculture (IMAQUA) at Ghent University, I gained competencies which included fish health management, focusing on sustainable, non-antibiotic solutions such as probiotics and bacteriophages. I trained in international laboratories at Ghent University - Belgium, Nitte University - India, and SLU – Sweden, acquiring skills now applied locally for diagnostics, disease outbreak preparedness, and microbial solutions for sustainable aquaculture intensification. Upon return, I joined Busitema University, where I teach and engage in research and outreach. I spearheaded Uganda’s first MSc in Sustainable Aquaculture to address critical curriculum gaps in graduate programs.
Improving Uganda’s aquaculture curricula requires deliberate capacity building as higher education correlates with the adoption of advanced systems (Byabasaija et al., 2024), integrating experiential learning (Strong et al., 2023), and boosting technical knowledge transfer (Kasozi et al., 2024). Thus, aquaculture education must integrate Education for Sustainability (EfS) (Ssozi, 2012), hands-on training (Rubinato et al., 2023), and gender and youth empowerment, including entrepreneurship and policy engagement (Byabasaija et al., 2024). Strengthening exchange programs and public-private partnerships will further align graduates with Uganda’s aquaculture needs. My PhD work, focusing on novel indigenous probiotics and phage-based biocontrol agents against Nile tilapia pathogens, has led to patentable innovations (Rwezawula et al., 2025) and partnerships for field-based validation and commercialization applications, feeding into Uganda’s fish health infrastructure.
Therefore, stakeholder engagement through public-private partnerships (Aanyu et al., 2020) and zonal innovation platforms (Kasozi et al., 2024), alongside exchange programs with countries like India and China (Kasozi et al., 2017), will support continuous learning. The transformation of aquaculture education must be holistic, collaborative, and future-focused, creating professionals who lead sustainably and locally. My education has been transformative, thus, with the right reforms, it can be for many others, too.