Seventy selected fish farmers along the Volta Lake have undergone a day’s seminar at Akosombo in the Eastern Region aimed at equipping them with modern techniques in aquaculture to enable them take advantage of government’s five-year aquaculture development plan. Government targets that the country should be able to produce 400,000 tons of fish within the period to help meet the national fish protein requirement. The seminar under the theme “Prudent farm management practice for maximum fish yield, a measure towards meeting Ghana’s protein requirement for a healthy population” was organized by Coppens Ghana, an internally acknowledged dealers in fish feeds. It was the second such farmer sensitization program organized by Coppens with support by its mother company, Coppens International based in the Netherlands to train fish farmers on effective use of the company’s feeds to ensure optimum fish harvest. The company’s Export Manager, Mr. Marc Verkuyl said officials from the company have been visiting farmers who benefited from the first training workshop last year on their farms to take them through practical demonstrations to ensure they practicalise the skills they acquired from the workshop. Mr. Emmanuel Aryee, Deputy Head of the Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of the Fisheries Commission said Ghana currently produces far below 50 percent of its protein needs as result of fast depleting ocean fish stocks which has also made fishing itself unattractive as catches continue to grow smaller. He partly blamed the depletion of the country’s marine resources on illegal fishing methods used by some fishermen, saying that the situation is better in neighboring countries due to strict adherence of the fishing laws by the people. He said the five-year aquaculture development plan will significantly increase the country’s fish stock from 27,000 tons 100, 000 tons per anum. It will also provide the necessary skills and support for fish farmers to enable them produce more for the country’s protein needs and advised them to form cooperatives to make it easier when seeking government support.