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Herald Reporter
THE fisheries and aquaculture sector is set for a major transformation following the injection of US$500 000 aimed at boosting the production of fingerlings, which will improve the quality and quantity of fish produced, enhance food and nutrition security while generating income for many people.
In line with the Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Strategy, the funding will cater for the construction and refurbishment of fish ponds, sourcing of brood stock, setting up of biosecurity systems, staff capacity building together with reviewing of the current fisheries legal frameworks, and production of hatchery management policy guidelines.
The programme is expected to increase fingerling production in the country from about 100 000 to 3,9 million annually at Government fisheries units.
Added to that, the projects further targets to improve livelihoods in different communities through improved income and nutrition, creation of employment and capacitation of mainly women and youths.
The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) under the Technical Cooperation Programme officially launched the US$500 000 technical support in Bulawayo yesterday.
A ground-breaking ceremony was done at the Matopos Research Station breeding site, paving the way for the establishment of 10 fish ponds with six of them being breeding ponds and four being resting ponds.
The main purpose of the project is to boost the production of fingerlings geared at improving the quality and quantity of fish.
With the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) project, the ministry said this will allow the country to rehabilitate, maintain and establish breeding sites and brood stocks, which will improve access to quality fingerlings at an affordable price to farmers.
At the moment, the ministry has few breeding sites, with some of them at zero percent capacity. Amongst the sites is Matopos Research, which is set to benefit from the project.
Officiating the project launch, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Deputy Minister, Cde Davis Marapira, said the fish industry in Zimbabwe has great potential to increase production from current levels of around 20 000 tons per year against a demand around 60 000 tons per year.
He said the country has over 10 000 dams and has a conducive climate for fish production but the challenges of obtaining quality fingerlings remain.
“We are here today (Thursday) to launch the programme with a tune of US$500 000, which will go a long way in developing the fisheries and aquaculture sector in the country,” said the Deputy Minister.
“The activities of this programme include construction of fish ponds, refurbishment of fish ponds, sourcing of brood stock, setting up of bio-security systems and protocols at the three sites, staff capacity building together with reviewing of the current fisheries legal frameworks, and production of hatchery management policy guidelines,” he said.
“The programme will increase fingerling production from the current 100 000 to 3 920 000 fingerlings annually at the Government fisheries units”.
Cde Marapira said right now the fingerlings used in the sector cannot guarantee quality products as there is lack of scientifically structured breeding programmes leading to high probability of reduced productivity.
Accordingly, he said the project will enhance national fisheries programmes through the out-grower scheme.
About 30 percent of the distribution of quality fingerlings will be channeled to women and youth in aquaculture, communities in nutrition gardens, and irrigation schemes in various regions of the country as a startup and 70 percent will be offset to small and middle-income.
Online Reporter