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Conrad Mupesa Mashonaland West Bureau
The fisheries and aquaculture industry will continue to grow Zimbabwe’s economy, and create income and jobs as the country moves towards the national vision of an upper middle-income society by 2030, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Deputy Minister Davison Marapira said last week.
He was touring fisheries and aquaculture-related farming initiatives in Kariba.
At present, the centre of fisheries sector expected to create a US$1 billion industry, has already breathed life into Kariba town employing thousands.
Deputy Minister Marapira said Government was keen to help the business with colleges and universities to conduct more research to help grow the industry.
“These are low-hanging fruits, so as Government we should be able to assist because we want growth they also need assistance from our colleges to do more research,” he said.
His call to tertiary schools followed his visit to Padenga Holdings, a crocodile farm producing more than 42 000 skins a year.
It sought the technical and ingenuity of the Harare Institute of Technology to assemble a granulator that produces crocodile feed.
The company had failed to find one on the international market.
The company’s operations executive, Mr Charles Boddy was grateful to the Education 5.0 model.
“We had a challenge with a shape of the food, so the Harare Institute of Technology developed a customised machine where they convert our food into balls at the right size for the crocodiles,” he said.
“I must tell you that we looked over the world to find a machine and the guys developed it for us from zero and it’s working brilliantly.”
Padenga has three crocodile farms: Kariba Crocodile farm, Nyanyana and Ume.
“We do 42 000 to 46 000 crocodile skins per year. We are employing at the moment 858 people across the three operations and our mission is to produce quality crocodile skins for the luxury houses throughout the world,” he said.
As attention has been shifted to schools, villages and wards for them to also venture into fish farming, a call has been made to fish breeders to produce enough fingerlings.
Kariba Bream Farm manager Mr Carl Nicholson assured the Government of commitment towards the production of the fingerlings.
The farm produces at least four to five million fingerlings a year to sell to people who are interested in fish farming.
While the Government is optimistic that the targets are achievable, there are fears that billing seen as unfair by some in the industry by Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) would cripple the targets.
Crocodile Producers Association of Zimbabwe chairperson Mr Jimmyson Kazangarare said they were being billed exorbitantly as compared to fellow farmers conducting irrigation farming.
Online Reporter