Marsabit County, a largely arid zone, is predominantly a live-stock rearing region. But the trend is slowly shifting to fish farming, thanks to efforts by the World Food Programme (WFP) which is developing sustainable solutions. WFP supply Chains Officer Albert Mwambonu says the organisation has entered reached an agreement with the county government of Marsabit to drive this new culture..
In North Horr Sub-County, WFP and the county directorate of fisheries are actively engaged in the promotion of smallholder fish farming, in a move aimed at enhancing food security and resilience among local pastoralist communities, who have for a long time have depended on food aid.
Mr Mwambonu said the adoption of aquaculture is purely a climate adaptation and an alternative source of livelihood for pastoralists in the arid areas. Local communities who are mainly keepers of livestock that include camels, cattle, sheep and goats never had fish on their menu, as their culture prohibited them from consuming fish.
To propel climate-smart agriculture, there has been a lot of awareness creation through training and sensitisation on the benefits of fish farming and consumption. “We have so far managed to establish fish farms in the very arid areas of North Horr, Moyale and Saku constituencies, where eating and trading in fish is now unbroken,” says Mr Mwambonu, the WFP supply Chains Officer.
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At the same time, a 40-member-strong self-help group, the Chalbi Rural Development Initiative run by both men and women fish farmers, is running successful ponds that are stocked with 500 fish of the tilapia species. The group leadership says it ventured into the activity after being educated by officials from WFP and the fisheries department on its importance.
Ms Hadija Guyo, the head of the group, says that fish farming has made them food secure, besides offering a source of income made from sales of mature fish. She pointed out that persistent droughts had wiped out their livestock, exposing them to all manner of vulnerabilities, as they had to depend on food aid from the government and donors for their survival.
Ms Guyo says many locals who are in fish farming have been able to regain their dignity, which they had lost because of begging for food and other forms of basic support. “Members of this group get dividends from fish sales after every harvest, which we also use to pay school fees for our children and to start small businesses,” she said with a broad smile of satisfaction.
The members also save a fraction of the sales for table banking, which they use as a revolving kitty. The transformation is now three years old and the number of locals who want to be enlisted in the venture is growing by the day.
For Katelo Guyo, who initially reared a combined herd of camels, cattle and goats numbering about 500 animals but currently has only a handful after being wiped out by three consequent droughts, now says there is always adequate water to support tilapia fish farming. “I like this activity because it is quite friendly in terms of time saving because it is less demanding and located within our villages, hence giving one room to attend to other errands,” said Guyo, who also attested to tasting fish for the first time, while aged over 50 years, courtesy of WFP.
The county Fisheries Officer Sostine Wanjala says tilapia fish is well suited for rearing in arid and semi-arid areas, as it does not require huge supply of water and can survive in ponds under hot climatic conditions, which can be refreshed biweekly. “Tilapia fish is highly resistant to diseases and does well in hot climatic conditions, which makes it ideal to rear in this county, as far as the participants have been capacitated and the water is available,” said Wanjala.
The main sources of water to farm fish in the region are boreholes, springs and shallow wells, though the Fisheries Officer says it can be boosted through rainwater harvesting. He expressed optimism that the eat fish awareness campaigns being jointly carried out by the county government and WFP were winning over pastoralist communities, whose cultural beliefs hindered them from eating fish.
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“We have purposely and relentlessly waged the campaign not only on the need to turn to fish eating instead of only focusing on red meat like beef, but also through provision of pond liners, predator and fishing nets,” Wanjala pointed out.
And to build resilience among the climate change-hard-hit pastoralist communities, the necessary capacity building in terms of training at the Sagana-based National Aquaculture Research Development and Training Centre (NARDTC) has been facilitated for various farmers who in turn pass the knowledge gained to others. Wanjala disclosed that the resilience initiative has yielded much gain, with the number of fish farmers having increased from 15 people to more than 100 in the past three years.
The journey to fishing has, however, been experiencing some rough times as farmers complained of the high cost of fish feed. Nevertheless, Wanjala hinted at plans by the county government to assist the farmers to establish milling machines to produce the input locally.
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