ABUJA, 17 Sep, 2005 (TURKISH_PRESS) - African ministers and international donors unveiled a 1.1-billion-dollar (894 million euro) strategy to boost catches, build fish farms and develop the seafood sector after a high-level meeting.

The World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation pledged to work with experts from Africa's home-grown NEPAD development blueprint to reverse a trend which has seen the continent's per capita fish supply fall be 12 percent in the past decade.

Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, the chairman of the African Union, said: "If Africa's per capita consumption of fish is just to be kept at its present level, though grossly low and unacceptable, then fish production must be increased by over 250 percent by 2015."

"This unhealthy situation calls for urgent action and indeed poses a great challenge to all of us," he said at a closing address to the NEPAD Fish for All Summit in the Nigerian capital.

African ministers and officials from 25 countries saw the launch of Profish, the World Bank's "programming and funding partnership" on fisheries reform in the developing world.

The programme will be assisted by the Malaysia-based World Fish Centre, an international body set up to reduce poverty in developing countries through building fish farms and helping government's manage wild fish stocks.

The talks began as the FAO warned that over the past 10 years Africa's per capita supply of fish has dropped from 8.8 kilos (19.4 pounds) in 1990 to about 7.8 kilos in 2001.

"Africa is the only continent where you see this happening, and the dilemma it poses is that there are no affordable alternative sources of protein. For a continent where food security is so precarious, it's extremely worrying," said Ichiro Nomura, FAO undersecretary for fishing.

Even though Africans have the world's lowest fish consumption, fish contributes at least half of the animal protein in the diets of many Africans, a level second only to Asia, the agency said.

The situation has worsened in part due to a substantial increase in fish exports, "as well as harvests by non-African fleets operating under fishing agreements," Nomura said.

"African countries face a major challenge to ensure fish supply to the estimated 200 million mainly poor people relying on fish as a main part of their diet," the World Fish Centre said.

Declaring the technical session open on Monday here, Nigeria's junior agriculture minister, Bamidele Dada, said that the NEPAD Fish for All was designed to build greater international commitment and address the challenges of fisheries development and management worldwide.

"In the African context, such challenges include sustainable management of natural fish stocks, development of aquaculture, production systems, enhancing fish marketing and trade, intensifying scientific research and sustainable management of the aquatic environment," he said.