Ministry sinks Sh17 million in fish farming

By Antony Gitonga

The Ministry of Fisheries Development will this year use Sh17 million to restock dams and Lake Naivasha with Tilapia.

The troubled Lake Naivasha will get Sh2 million — the biggest allocation to a single lake — to restock with 300,000 fingerings of tilapia.

The PS in the Fisheries Ministry Miseni Ntiba, said the programme will run up to June and is meant to rejuvenate fisheries and improve future landings.

"The restocking is meant to rejuvenate dams and lakes," Prof Ntiba said.

"Lake Naivasha, for instance, has been fragile with several environmental challenges."

Ntiba was speaking in Kamere Beach when he launched the restocking of the lake with the tilapia species.

Statistics from the ministry show the common carp dominates fish stock at 90 per cent, while the volume of tilapia is negligible in the lake.

Fish catch

Ntiba expressed concern over the drop in fish catch in local lakes and the Indian Ocean.

He said that in 2000, the county exported two million metric tonnes of Nile Perch, but this has since dropped to 500,000 metric tonnes.

In 2009, fishermen in Lake Naivasha harvested 680 metric tonnes of fish worth Sh31.2m compared to 2008 when the fish catch stood at 225 metric tonnes.

Last year, Treasury allocated Sh22 billion under the Economic Stimulus Package to boost the economy. The initiative sought to identify key sectors of the economy that were under-performing with a view to reviving them.

At the time, fish farming was just one of them. Under the programme, the government was to spend Sh1.12 billion to construct fishponds in over 140 constituencies.

Long before this initiative, however, farmers in parts of the Rift Valley had already turned their energies to commercial fish farming. This was attributed to the high cost of inputs and unpredictable market conditions for crops.

The sub-sector, however, accounts for less than one per cent of the national fish production with a total of 1,012 metric tonnes produced last year.

The changing diet of the residents and the creation of the fisheries and marine department at Moi University served to fan fish farming.

During the ceremony, the PS announced plans to construct 480 small dams across the country to tap and use run-off water.

The PS says each dam would cost Sh0.5 million and every constituency would get three dams. Work on the projects has already commenced in some constituencies.

"We are losing a lot of water through run-offs and are committed to build the dams for the future," she said.

Ntiba at the same time announced plans to form the Fisheries Coast Guards to fight poaching that was on the increase in Indian Ocean and other lakes.

At the same time, Naivasha DC Hellen Kiilu expressed fears that Lake Naivasha is gradually choking under increasing water hyacinth.

She called for more innovative approaches to harvest the weed and clean up the Lake.

"We should give the youth the work of removing this weed from the lake through the Kazi kwa Vijana programme," Kiilu said.