The Busia County Executive for Agriculture, Moses Osia has urged area residents to embrace cage fish farming.
Speaking to the press in Busia on Saturday, Osia said the new technology aims at increasing the number of fish in Lake Victoria. “Our fishermen have been using illegal fishing gears hence reducing the number of fish in the lake,” he said.
He added that the County government established 100 fish cages with a capacity of 10,000 fish each during 2016/2017 financial year.
The county executive at the same time, advised the public to start eating fish in order to counter the high rate of malnutrition in the region that stands at 26 per cent compared to the national figure of 21 per cent.
“As a government we have a fish eating campaign every year as many residents, including children do not eat fish,” Osia stressed.
He also appealed to local investors to establish fish feed factories and fish hatcheries adding that fish feeds and fingerings were a major challenge in the County.“Right now we mostly go to Uganda and Sagana to get fingerlings,” he said.
Osia pointed out that plans are underway to establish a fish fillet factory at Busia Agricultural Training Centre with a view to add value to the fish.
He was accompanied by the County Director of Fisheries (CDF), Timothy Odende who revealed that his department spent Sh15 million to establish the 100 fish cages.
Odende said the department targets to harvest about 3.5 tonnes of fish in the next four months.
By Lameck Brian
