More rural farmers engage in fish production

THE rehabilitation of water bodies by the government across the country has seen an increase in small-to-medium farmers in rural areas venturing into fish production.

Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, Livestock and Meat Council economist Reneth Mano said the restoration of dams has enabled rural farmers to venture into tilapia business.

“The government initiative of opening up new dams and rehabilitating water bodies such as Tokwe Mukosi Dam in Masvingo, Zhovhe Dam in Beitbridge and other bigger dams across the country has made more farmers venture into fish production,” Mano said.

“This attracts new investors and we hope all major water bodies will have companies anchoring the large scale commercial production of tilapia, as well as supplying fingerlings to the small scale farmers to medium sized producers.

“Dam investments are increasing the production and productivity of fish. We are expecting more growth in the sub-sector.”

According to Mano, tilapia production was in recent years a monopoly of a few companies.

“The domestic fish production was measured in terms of tilapia production by one company and over the past three years, production at Lake Kariba has been going down.

“Lake Kariba has been facing challenges of sustainable maximum yields, so there has been a surge of imports to meet national demand. This has created a market for local farmers.

“Small-to-medium producers in totality are producing more fish. The bulk of the fish being locally produced is sold in the district markets, increasing access to fish for the rural middle income communities,” Mano told the Daily News.

He said cheaper imports were a headache to local producers.

“Import prices of tilapia coming from other countries are as low as US$1.70 per kg whereas here it is sold at US$3.25 a kg and this has depressed local prices,” Mano added.

He said some of the small-scale fish producers were using ponds.

“We also have about 3 000 small scale farmers with ponds distributed across the country. Most of the ponds are in rural areas, Masvingo being the biggest producer as they account for 25-30 percent of ponds in the country,” said Mano.-dailynews