Aquaculture Business Development Programme (ABDP), has started the distribution of fish pond liners and kits to control predators that eat fish, to farmers in Siaya County.
The Siaya County ABDP Coordinator Mr David Mboya said 380 farmers with fish ponds will be issued with the liners and predators control kits in the first phase.
The Coordinator said if the fish are fed as recommended, ponds maintained as specified and harvests done on time, then the beneficiaries would get 85 tonnes of fish in ten months.
Mboya urged farmers in the county to grow plants that are milled into fish feeds, as a means to earn income and to reduce the cost to the millers. He said currently the feeds are expensive because the feed millers have to import the plant’s products from other counties.
He said importation of the feeds inevitably raises the cost of fish to consumers, yet that can be avoided if the raw materials were produced locally.
Siaya County Executive for Agriculture, Dr. Elizabeth Odhiambo said, the county government will distribute 20 tonnes of fish feeds to farmers enrolled by ABDP in the area. The officials were speaking in Rarieda Sub-County, Siaya County, when ABDP distributed the kits and pond liners to fish farmers.
ABDP aim was to increase fish stocks for home consumption and for business, to improve rural economies.
By Paul Olale
