Commercial fish production is gaining popularity among cereal farmers in the North Rift region as the country’s breadbasket farmers invest in the sub-sector hoping to harvest from increased demand caused by dwindling fish stocks in Lake Victoria.
An estimated 2,400 farmers have ventured into aquaculture, which generated an estimated Sh160 million last financial year.
An average of 1,312 tonnes of fish were produced from aquaculture and the yield is expected to increase following aggressive campaign by the Ministry of Agriculture-fisheries department and support from the University of Eldoret (UOE) on appropriate fish species to rear in the region.
“Aquaculture has proved to be a source of self-employment, income generation and, therefore, contributes towards the government overall goal of poverty eradication,” said Mr Simion Lagat from Nandi County who has invested in the sub-sector.
A medium size tilapia goes for between Sh300-Sh500, which the farmer termed profitable as compared to maize or wheat whose prices are determined by market forces.
“It is much profitable to invest in commercial fish farming due to low capital as compared to the liberalised cereal sector that is facing market challenges, which have resulted to unsteady prices for the commodities,” said Mr Jackson Kosgei from Chepkoilel, Uasin Gishu County.
The UOE, fisheries department has launched education programmes for farmers who have invested in fish production in the region. It has fish ponds where demonstration programmes are carried out. Investments in the sub-sector have been boosted by change of dietary habits among locals from the traditional consumption of cereals and milk as staple diet.
“More people are now consuming fish than before after realising its high nutritional value, which has motivated cereal farmers to invest in the sub-sector,” said Mary Too, another fish farmer from Saos, Nandi County.
The government constructed 200 fish ponds in 140 constituencies under the economic stimulus programme, more than 10 years ago. Some of the projects in the region have been constructed in wetland in Nandi, Uasin Gishu, Trans Nzoia and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties.
Commercial fishing, which has been the main source of incomes for members of Turkana community and their Merille counterpart from Ethiopia faces a bleak future due to dwindling stocks caused by heavy siltation and intrusion of fish breeding zones in Lake Turkana. The scramble for greater fish share is driving members of Beach Management Units (BMUs) from the two otherwise pastoral communities who neighbour Lake Turkana to venture into deep waters in pursuit of superior catch resulting in often deadly confrontations, deaths and loss of fishing gear.
Environmentalists and civil society groups in the region attribute miseries facing fishing activities in Lake Turkana to construction of Gibe III dam built on the Omo River in Ethiopia, which supplies 80 per cent of Lake Turkana’s water in Kenya.
They argue that the dam has interfered with fish breeding zones in River Omo and resulted in a drop in the quantity of stocks in the water body. “Water volumes in Lake Turkana that is source of livelihood to more than 20,000 families through commercial fishing activities are likely to decline by 60 per cent in the next five to seven years as a result of construction of the Gibe dam by the Ethiopian government,” said Eliud Emeri, Turkana Civil Society group leader. River Omo drains 90 per cent of its water into Lake Turkana and the Ethiopian government is almost completing construction of the dam to generate electricity and for irrigation.
“The Kenyan and Ethiopian government need to come up with proper management plan to save Lake Turkana from facing extinction as a result of meddling of the ecosystem in pursuit of development,” appealed John Mame, Chairman, Impressa Beach Management Unit (BMU) at Kalokol.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) has listed national parks at Lake Turkana among world heritage sites in danger and needs corrective action to save them from extinction.
The World Heritage Committee has added Lake Turkana National Park to the list of 54 endangered sites, citing threats posed to the lake by Ethiopia’s Gibe III dam and Kuraz Sugar project. Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lakes joined the World Heritage List in 1997.
