By Conrad Mwanawashe
ZIMBABWE is transforming fish farming into a formal business to absorb thousands of unemployed women and youth, reduce rural-urban migration and guarantee protein nutrition countrywide.
To achieve this daunting milestone, government has embarked on a ‘massive’ promotion of aquaculture, which includes improving genetics, a drive to establish fish breeding facilities closer to farmers, establishing business units comprising a borehole, nutrition garden and two fish ponds in selected wards, ensuring a steady supply of fish, an alternative food source, and promoting efficient land and water use.
On breeding facilities, government, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has embarked on a drive to establish fish breeding facilities closer to farmers.
“This will see to the expansion of Fisheries Units at Henderson, establishment of new sites at Makoholi, Matopos, Chipinge, and Bubi-Lupane,” said Deputy Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Davis Marapira, at the 1st Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector Coordination Meeting, Thursday.
“Alternative feed source trials are being spearheaded by Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Production Department (FARD) in Fisheries Units to aid in availability of affordable fish feed.
“Collaborative efforts with development partners are currently underway in genetic improvement of indigenous species, addressing the cold chain challenges, improving international fish trade and controlling illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing under the SADC initiated PROFISHBLUE Project,” said Marapira.
The FISH4ACP Countries project has also significantly helped in strengthening the Aquaculture Value Chain, and is also helping in the development of a harmonized and conducive regulatory framework. Initial steps have been carried out towards the development of a standalone Fisheries and Aquaculture Act.
“The critical role played by fisheries and aquaculture in food and nutrition security, income generation, employment creation, as well as empowerment of communities, especially women and youths, cannot be overemphasized. Not only that, our children in rural communities will start going to school.
“And there will be no movement from rural to urban, because there will be employment at home. Think also of the much-needed income to every one of us. Besides that, we want to create exports of fish internationally,” he added.
Under the Presidential Community Fisheries Scheme of the Rural Development Programme 8.0, Zimbabwe has a target to stock 1,200 dams spread across the whole country over a five-year period and Deputy Minister Marapira said target production is above 60, 000 metric tonnes by next year.
Garikai Munatsirei, Chairman for the Zimbabwe Fish Producers Association, a grouping of about 2,400 members in the fisheries sector, focusing mainly on farm-raised fish, said the community fisheries scheme had created enthusiasm and interest around the country.
“The level of interest in fish farming is increasing, which is good for the country because we have a lot of water bodies that are not being fully utilised. And this enthusiasm in fish farming should be able to hopefully translate into more efficient usage of those water bodies, so that we not just use the water for irrigation, but we also use it for farming fish,” said Munatsirei.
But one of the biggest challenges to achieving the set targets, is the introduction of VAT on fish, introduced in the 2024 budget statement when Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube put 15% VAT on all meat products.
Fish producers argue that this measure increased the price of the proteins and also reduced the demand from people because they cannot afford fish products anymore.
“We’ve made representations to government through the ministry for this to be re-looked at before the Statutory Instrument is published. It hasn’t been published up to now. So, we hope that when the fine print is given, it will have been corrected,” Munatsirei said.
“When local fish is expensive, it opens a door for imported fish from Zambia. At the moment, as the Zimbabwe Fish Producers Association, we estimate that an average of about plus or minus 100 metric tonnes of fish is coming into Zimbabwe from Zambia every week. And that’s a lot of fish.
“And the interesting thing is that imported fish is selling for $2.80 per kg, wholesale, but it’s very difficult to grow a fish with our cost structures and beat that $2.80. So, basically it means we are losing ground to imported fish,” according to Munatsirei.
Deputy Minister Marapira assured the stakeholders that government is reviewing legislation to guarantee fish producers’ viability.
“We’re working on that. We’re busy working on the issue,” he said.
Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Production Department, Milton Makumbe, told the same meeting that in line with the legislative progress, government and its stakeholders are actively working towards establishing a stand-alone Fisheries and Aquaculture Act.
“This new framework aims to address production issues currently overlooked in our existing legal structures, paving the way for sustainable growth in the sector.
“In collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), we have developed hatchery management guidelines to enhance fish breeding and production in Zimbabwe. Following a stakeholder consultation exercise on the first draft, we are making strides towards finalizing this crucial document,” said Makumbe.
Feedback: [email protected]
