Release of 5,000 Tilapia
Rupeni Rasigare was happy to be the first fish farmer in Labasa to receive 5,000 tilapia (baby fish) from the Ministry of Fisheries recently.
He was among the 23 fish farmers from Macuata Province to receive training from the ministry last week on how to farm fish. Mr Rasigare who is the director of Durubuabua Investment Limited has just started his fishing business at Naduna in Labasa with this assistance from the Government. “I would like to thank the ministry and Human Resource Development Program for helping me start off my fishing business,” Mr Rasigare said.
“By May I should be harvesting the fish and selling to the Labasa market.
“I have two fish ponds each of which is 50 x 20 metres,” he said.
“This investment will gain $25,000 after the first harvest from each pond. In one year we can harvest twice from one pond. Northern Divisional Principal Fisheries officer Joji Vakawaletabu said for this project to be successful they need to have a good water source, a suitable soil type to hold the water and each pond must be visible for the owner to see that no one steals from them.
“This is the first funded project we are rolling out in Macuata where we supply fish farmers with baby fish,” Mr Vakawaletabu said.
“In the future they will be in a position to supply baby fish to others.
Locals in the Northen Division should think about aquaculture farming.
The main benefit for this project is that unlike the fishermen going out to sea and experiencing loss in their supply due to bad weather conditions, these farmers will only have to walk to the ponds.”
We will be monitoring the project on a regular basis to make sure that the farmers are able to be sustainable.”
Edited by Susana Tuilau