Kisumu County embraces cage farming to boost fish stocks

KISUMU, KENYA: Kisumu County government will set up 125 fish farming cages across 25 beaches on Lake Victoria to help improve on the dwindling stocks.

Women Representative Rose Nyamunga said they are planning to put and stock five cages per beach under management of fish farmers in a move also calculated to ease pressure on the lake.

Data by the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute quote large number of fishermen on the lake as the biggest contributor to dwindling fish stocks.

Nyamunga told the Standard that the county had approached International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for Sh200 million (USD2 million) to kick off the project which also entails rehabilitation of 800 fish ponds started under the Economic Stimulus Programme of 2008.

"We have rehabilitated and restocked 105 ponds so far and we want to do the same for 700 others that are functional," she said "We are also seeking partnership with IFAD to help us take up cage farming at a commercially viable level."

She said the project is expected to bridge fish shortage that has seen vendors and processing firms import fish from Uganda and China as others collapsed or shipped out of Kisumu.

"The fisheries sector has only been neglected and is lacking technical support. As part of the recovery project, we will set up cold storage and repair the road networks leading to the fish beaches," she said.

Nyamunga said the move was aimed at eliminating middlemen who have over the years exploited fishermen, most of who have remained poor despite being in the business for years.

She said the farmers would be educated on financial management and how to manage the ponds and cages so that they do not collapse.

Of the 1274 ponds excavated and stocked in the ESP package, only 800 were functional and redeemable, according to Nyamunga.

The fish cages, Nyamunga said, will be stocked will Tilapia fingerlings and closely monitored by county officials.

She further intimated that the county was looking to lock out Uganda eggs imports by introducing poultry across the seven sub-counties.

"We are putting at least two hatcheries with capacities of 5000 eggs in every sub-county, but we plan to increase this to about five to lock out imports," she said.

She said 440 groups had received 100 day-old chicks across the county to set the project on course

The legislator said nearly 75 per cent of 12 million eggs consumed in Kisumu annually comes from Uganda