The government of Rwanda has announced plans to incorporate fish farmers in the agricultural insurance scheme to help these farmers avoid making such losses in the future.
This follows successive incidents where thousands of fish suffocated due to lack of oxygen leading farmers to count losses in millions. The latest incident took place in Eastern Province where thousands of fish died on Lake Muhazi following depletion of oxygen due to water turnovers that triggered a deadly ‘algal bloom’ for mature fish.
A similar incident occurred on the same lake in January, leading to the death of thousands of fish of the Tilapia variety. At the time, more than 3,700 tilapia fish died. According to findings, the water turnover that triggers a deadly algal bloom phenomenon for mature fish is most likely to happen during the night because of oxygen competition between fishes and algae.
Tekana
The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources said they will include fish farming in the subsidized insurance product dubbed ‘Tekana’ which usually caters to dairy cows, pigs, poultry and crops dubbed, ‘Tekana’.
“Fish farmers are advised to place cages at a depth of more than eight metres far from the shores, to put enough space between cages and clean them regularly to allow access to enough oxygen. Farmers should also have portable oxygen meters to test the amount of dissolved oxygen. Fish that weighs more than 500 grams should also be fished out because they are at high risk in case of depletion of oxygen,” said Solange Uwituze, Deputy Director-General in charge of Animal Resources, Research and Technology Transfer at Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB).
