By correspondent in Offa.
After securing the Artificial Intelligence for Females in Aquaculture (AI4WA) grant from the Gender and Responsible Artificial Intelligence Network (GRAIN), the consortium, led by Summit University, Offa, Nigeria, collaborated with fish farming practitioners from Offa, Ayede, Irra, Ilorin, and other towns in Kwara and Osun States of Nigeria. Together, they took proactive steps in seizing control of their destiny by delving into the pivotal role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in aquaculture. The exploration extended to understanding the challenges and opportunities faced by female fish farmers, identifying skill development needs, and formulating strategies for promoting gender equality in fish farming.
During the analysis of challenges, participating farmers shed light on issues in aquaculture practices, including sincerity of practice, substandard fingerling production and feed formulation, lack of encouragement for training and certification, inefficient foreign tools and machines, the absence of an app for farm record tracking, and unfamiliarity with AI.
The facilitating AI4WA team for the events, which includes research team members Nafisat Lawal, Mrs. Mutiat Muhammed, Mr. Olatunde, Maryam Afolabi, Bilkis Olawuyi, and Aminat Salaudeen, discussed the challenges of aquaculture, the use of existing technology, and familiarity with AI, among other topics, during the town and gown initiative.
Following comprehensive analysis and brainstorming sessions, the collaborative town and gown initiative proposed several recommendations. These include the development of smart aquaculture monitoring systems for farm surveillance and predator detection and prevention, the fabrication of tools/machinery adapted to local conditions, the availability of skilled personnel to support the nation’s needs, the development of a homegrown mobile application platform for farm monitoring, and the integration of social media platforms for product marketing, among other measures to address the identified challenges.
The AI4WA team with secretariat at Summit University Offa, in collaboration with other partners, will be organizing a series of capacity development programmes for SMEs, academia and NGOs in Nigeria. This initiative aims to address the identified challenges and align with the current government agenda in this area.
