Fish farmers from Kirinyaga County in Kenya have received fishpond liners, fingerlings and feeds to enable them undertake beneficial fish farming.
The County government selected twenty self-help groups after applying for funding from the county government were given the inputs at the beginning of this month and they are expected to harvest their first produce after six months.
Governor Anne Waiguru has said that the fish farming project is one of the components of Wezesha Kirinyaga economic programme that has been supporting farmers to diversify on their agricultural activities in order to increase their revenue streams.
She said that the project was informed by the huge deficit of fish, which makes Kenya to import fish as lake fishing cannot sustain the demand. She pointed out that her administration will support the farmers for the first six months and, thereafter, the groups are supposed to sustain the projects after selling their initial produce.
Alternative livelihoods
“Fish farming will provide alternative livelihoods and give direct support to women and youth who will be involved at various stages of the project value chain which include, cooking, selling and transportation of fish. Others will be employed at fish eateries which have now become very popular in the county”, said the governor.
Governor Waiguru also urged Kirinyaga residents to embrace routine consumption of fish as a way of boosting their health as well as growing the county’s economy. She said that consumption of excess red meat has been attributed to high prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney diseases among the residents, noting that fish provides a good source of the recommended white meat.
