TERTIARY college graduates have been advised to get into serious fish farming because it has proved to be a rewarding trade, but one that is yet to be taken very seriously in Tanzania.
The Managing Director of Lituta-based Wilolesi Fish Farm, in Madaba Council, Ruvuma Region, Mr. Lucius Luoga, told reporters who visited his farm yesterday that fish farming was a handsomely repaying trade but unfortunately it remained an untapped enterprise.
The trade, he said, has minimal business risks while a kilogramme of fish currently fetches eight thousand shillings on the market.
Wilolesi Fish Farm is rearing different types of fish but has been successful in rearing the Nile Perch popularly known as Sato. It has 1,000 sato in its four ponds.
Mr. Luoga praised the efforts of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (Sagcot) in changing the lives of people in rural southern Tanzania.
He also commended the government’s rural transformation thrust, calling on the ministry of livestock and fisheries to ‘descend’ on southern regions and promote fish farming in order to prop up people’s nutrition and disposable income, adding that: “This government is delivering on rural transformation and I have faith in (Livestock and Fisheries Minister), Mr. Luhaga Mpina.”
Only this year, Deputy Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Abdallah Ulega and the Dutch Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Food Quality Marjolijn Sonnema signed a memorandum of understanding between Tanzania and the Hague on aquaculture and poultry.
Under the agreement, Tanzanians will get training in The Hague on how to increase productivity in poultry and aquaculture.
Contacted for comment Sagcot Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Geoffrey Kirenga welcomed efforts by the Wilolesi Fish Farm and the vision of its leadership.
“We encourage individuals and institutions to use the private sector desk in the ministry of livestock and fisheries and Minister Luhaga Mpina is quite keen on this issue. Sagcot is a strategic stakeholder in that desk,” he said adding: “I believe if people in the Wilolesi Fish Farm will be trained on their trade Mr. Luoga will be our ambassador in our corridor.”
