ZAMBIA CLOSING UP FISH DEFICIT – CHIKOTE

By Jessica Mwansa

WE are working towards promoting aquaculture to close up the gap of fish deficit in the country, Minister of Livestock and Fisheries Makozo Chikote has said.

Speaking to the Scoop, Mr. Chikote said despite the annual fish ban being extended from December to March every year, it had not helped to increase fish in the country’s water bodies which he said were overfished due to unreported fishing activities.

He however said his ministry was equal to the task in ensuring that the challenges faced by aquaculture farmers were addressed to boost production of fish in Zambia.

“The natural water bodies have been overfished because there are so many illegalities that are taking place from our people. As the Government, we felt that we should take the route of aquaculture development where we can grow fish to close up the gap.

 “The ban has not helped increase fish population in our waters as there is visible depletion of fish in most of the country’s water sources, resulting in a critical fish shortage, forcing the Government to allow imports. In order to address the deficit of fish in our country, we are promoting and supporting farmers through training to help them understand how to boost production,” Mr. Chikote said.

“We are working hard to ensure that the cost of the fingerings and fish feeds are made affordable for our farmers. These are the only small areas remaining to be addressed to ensure that all farmers purchase their fish feed within reasonable prices,” he added.

Mr. Chikote, who admitted that the country was producing less tonnage of fish as expected, said the Government had crafted a policy that will guide the future development of aquaculture in the country.

“The Aquaculture Policy cab memorandum was submitted to Cabinet and it was approved and we engaged stakeholders. We are currently awaiting to present it in Parliament once it resumes sitting. This move came in after realizing the two sub-sectors are not fully represented in the Second National Agriculture Policy. The Government came up with the Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy that will guide the future development of aquaculture in the country.

“Before establishing the Zambia Aquaculture Enterprise Development (ZAED) and crafting the national policy on fisheries and aquaculture, the two sub-sectors suffered from inadequate fisheries, infrastructure, technology, illegal fishing, and unregulated and unreported fishing activities. Due to these factors, the deficit of fish has led to low fish consumption in the country,” he said.

He added that due to the deficit ZAED was established to provide soft loans, logistical support, skills, and extension services to upcoming commercial fish farmers throughout the country adding that aquaculture had a component of seed funds to support the farmers and that his ministry had a number of farmers that it approved and gave financial support that were waiting to be stocked with fingerings once temperatures were favourable for fish farming.

“We working to ensure that a solution is found to the fish deficit and this is the time people should understand that whatever they are doing is business and it should not be treated casually because they have seen others having fishponds and they think they can also do it. It is important that they understand that they are venturing into business and business must be run as business.

“Furthermore, we encouraged the farmers to start stocking fingerlings between September and October when the temperatures are favourable for the fish. The fund managers, the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC), will ensure that all the farmers get their stock,” he said.

Mr. Chikote said the Government had come up with various measures to increase fish production in the country to meet both domestic and foreign markets.