By Okong’o Oduya
Busia County, Kenya: Fish farmers from Kamarinyang, Amukura Central Busia County are calling upon the county government of Busia to construct a hatchery center near them to enable them to access fingerlings with ease.
While addressing the County government officials from the department of fisheries during the launch of the Kamaringany Acqua Park, Omusolo said at the start they were only 6 farmers but in less than 3 years the number has grown to 133 who are involved in rearing fish and chicken.
“When we started we were 6 but with time we have grown to 133 fish farmers but our main challenge is lack of quality fish feed and where to get fingerlings. Let the government assure us that it will look for accredited fish hatcheries that will supply us with quality fingerlings,” he noted.
Omusolo however, called upon the county government to construct a fish hatchery near them to ease up the process of obtaining the fingerlings adding that some of them have been forced to go all the way to Uganda to buy the fingerlings.
He further noted that if the farmers will get what they require in fish farming they are capable of producing more than one tone of fish annually.
Director of fisheries Busia County Timothy Odende during the launch said the government will construct and stock more than 100 fish ponds to benefit 100 families in Kamarinyang to stop them from facing hurdles they face when procuring fingerling and fish feed.
Although, he said for the first five years the government will manage the ponds on behalf of the farmers before releasing them to the community after training the community on how to manage the ponds and the revenue generated will still go back to the farmers.
Besides the construction of ponds, Odende noted that through Kenya climate-smart, the project will come with other developments to the community such as electricity.
“This project is going to change the way we have been doing fish farming in this area. We are constructing 100 fish ponds here and these ponds will be yours. You will identify the beneficiaries yourself but since we need to train you on how to do effective fish farming, we will manage the ponds for the first five years then after that we will hand over the ponds to you,” he said.
He revealed that the government will also construct a fish eatery to provide a ready market for the fish adding that the main purpose of starting the project in the village is to open up the economy of the area.
Busia County government deputy governor Moses Mulomi said the government is investing more than ksh65Million in the project to make sure that the community benefits fully from fish farming.
This comes few weeks after the county government launched three other aqua parks across the county with an average of 540 fish ponds and 200 fish cages in Lake Victoria.
According to Mulomi, the county government is constructing 100 fish ponds Bukani Samia Sub County, 70 fish ponds in Marachi East in Butula Sub County, and 100 fish ponds in Burumba Matayos Sub County respectively, and 100 fish ponds in Kamarinyang in Teso South.
He said fish demand in Kenya stands at 600Million tons yet more only 100 Million tons are produced annually with the scarcity of over 500M tons of fish.
“The amount of fish we produce today in Kenya stands at 100Million tons and yet the demand is 600 Million tons yearly. This means that we still have a long way to go to meet the demand for fish in Kenya. This means that there is a ready market for every fish you will produce,” he said
He called upon the farmers to work closely with the County government of Busia to make sure that the project benefits them.
With the help of the Kenya climate-smart project, Mulomi said the project will attract other infrastructures such as roads, electricity, and other social amenities as soon as the project will be fully into operation.
He further noted that the county government invested more than 63 million in constructing a fish market in Busia town to cater to fish supply, revealing that fish worth of 2Billion shillings go through Busia County to other parts of the country and other nations every year.
