SmallFish4Food: Small fish for food and nutrition security in Africa

The SmallFish4Food consortium is a multidisciplinary research team from Norway, the Netherlands, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa, covering the fields of fish stock assessment, processing, marketing, nutrition, and governance. We will enhance the food security discourse formation to ecological sustainability and food security by investigating how socio-cultural,economic, technical, and institutional transformations of the fish value chain can improve the utilisation of small fish resources for Africaʼs low-income population. The fact that the nutrients in fish can play a significant role in combating the triple burden of hunger, micronutrient deficiencies and non-communicable diseases is the baseline of the project. However, the unique qualities of fish are seldom recognized in the global food security discourse and are missing from nutrient deficiency strategies among disadvantaged groups. Small fish are ubiquitous in all aquatic environments from large marine ecosystems to seasonal ponds, as well as in marketplaces and low-income household diets, but their significance is underrated and little understood as they are consumed locally and often go unrecorded in catch statistics. Catching small fish, which are sun-dried and consumed whole, is the most high yielding, eco-friendly, low CO2-emission animal food production system available. However, a range of social, technical, economic, and legal barriers inhibits the full potential of utilizing small fish.