Coronavirus 2019 was a global health concern that left most countries in a state of severe economic meltdown, most countries are still trying to bounce back economically. Scientific research has been done on the virus and its impact on various sectors but that of the Nigerian aquaculture industry has being missing. This paves the way for this review to consider the impact of the pandemic to fish farmers on the influence of the coronavirus on their activities, the challenges they faced during the period of the virus, and the strategies adopted to mitigate the impact of the virus. The review will look at cross sectional surveys carried out by the Nigeria government. During the pandemic, majority of fish farmers perceived demand decline, high cost of production, fish being more expensive, and reduction of manpower on the farm due to lockdown orders from the government. Reduction in walk-in customers to the farm was revealed as the major challenge posed by the pandemic, while the inability to get technical support as least. On coping strategies adopted, it was revealed that farmers have resorted to the development of their own feed. The COVID-19 has led to disruption of aquaculture practices worldwide. The pandemic has adversely affected the aquaculture input supply of fish stocking and feeding, which, in turn, has impacted aquaculture production. Moreover, the COVID-19 crisis has adverse effects on value addition to aquaculture products, through the restrictions of seafood marketing and exporting. Aquatic food production is vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 outbreak; hence, adaptation strategies must be developed to cope with the challenges. Although, a handful of fish farmers were involved in small scale feed production to cushion the effect of high cost of commercial feed and fish-marketable-size cost production.
Keywords: Aquaculture, aquatic food production, feed production, fisher folk, hardship and hunger, lockdown, pandemic disease
