admin
Blessing Rwizi Post Correspondent
PRACTICAL Action will this week float five 25-cubic-metre fish cages at Osborne Dam and Odzi River.The initiative is aimed at improving food, nutrition and income security among small-scale farmers in Mutasa District.
Gonde Reformed Fisheries, Odzi Fisheries and Asset Acquire are the three groups to benefit from the five cages.
Each cage will accommodate 6 000 Nile Telapia fish, valued at $8 000 when harvested, in the next five months.
Aquaculture Zimbabwe chipped in with the technical aspect of the project.
It organised cage designing and feed management systems, while Aquafeeds supplied fingerlings and feeds for the fish.
In an interview, Aquafeeds Manicaland representative, Mr John Shumba said:
“The cage concept was adopted from Lake Harvest in Kariba and one of its advantages is that the water is always fresh with optimum oxygen, resulting in a boom during harvesting. The reason why we chose Osborne Dam is that cage culture fish production system requires perennial water depths of 15-20 metres. More people from Ward 16 will also benefit from Osborne Dam besides irrigation purposes.”
Practical Action official said that reason for stocking this summer was due to high feed conservation rate, which results in high growth rate.
There is low risk of mortality rate and cotton wool disease during stocking.
Farmers in Mutasa were urged to make good use of the water available in the area and change their livelihoods.
The cages were made at Watsomba and the metal frames will be floated by containers and connected to sinking bag nets that separate cultured fish from wild fish.
Online Reporter