Ministries Work Together to Promote Aquaculture
There is a lot of buzz these days about entrepreneurship education, but it is still a foreign term for many. Youth entrepreneurship education is simply teaching our young people the basics of starting and running their own business. This can include everything from learning how to write a business plan to marketing and financial management. Today’s youths are tomorrow’s leaders and a lot depends on them when it comes to the economic development of our communities. Government through various ministries have engaged youths around the country through the programmes that they offer especially for agriculture, fisheries and forestry.
Collaboration for greater good
The Ministry of Youth and Sports has five training centres across Fiji and have offered a wide range of packaged training over the years ranging from farming, mechanical engineering, carpentry, bee-keeping and many more.
Last year, they approached the Ministry of Fisheries Centre in Labasa to engage in dialogues on possible aquaculture training at the Naleba Youth Training Centre. Principal Youth Officer Northern Division, Walter Matalau said that it was an opportunity that they knew they could not give up. “I would like to acknowledge the technical expertise offered by the Fisheries staff. When we approached them, we were adamant to engage them through their aquaculture program as we knew, we had the resources and the facility as well as the need to train our youths and offer them a new packaged training altogether,” explained Mr Matalau.
“The discussions went really well and of course after a few more visits we started the work. Initially the plan was to dig two ponds; one for Tilapia and the other for prawn. The technical officials later returned and suggested that it would be a great idea to purchase a knock down tank which can provide both tilapia and prawn training per batch of trainees,” added Mr Matalau.
“The Ministry assisted us in the acquisition of the tank as well as its installation and now we are waiting for the tilapia fry which will also be supplied by the Ministry.”
Permanent Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry, Pene Baleinabuli says the joint venture with the Ministry of Youth and Sports will auger well for the future especially from a food security and economic empowerment perspective, as well as the meaningful engagement of Fiji’s young people.
“The collaboration between Government agencies to provide a holistic support service to the youth is highly critical. On this occasion, incorporating aquaculture farming into the youth training syllabus is a great start as this will enable us to work closely in terms of training our future entrepreneurs. There is a definite need to train more young people especially those who have chosen to pursue farming so that they become successful in their respective families and communities,” explained Mr Baleinabuli.
Mr Baleinabuli added that the initiative between Youth and Fisheries is basically building the capacity of the youths/trainees on pond construction (knock-down tank & earthen pond), Aqua Farm management, Post-Harvest and Marketing.
“Our Aquaculture team will certainly work towards developing a training manual for the trainees. But it was good to see that students and staff were all hands on during the initial set up of the KnockDown
tank.”
“Collaboration of this nature is for the greater good of our Nation “he said.
Naleba Youth Centre
According to Mr Matalau, the centre is currently enrolling youths for this year and the dormitories at the YTC can house 30 males and 20 females.
“The whole idea is to provide them with skills based training in which the certificate attained at the end of the year can bridge the youths to continue with normal tertiary education, find employment or even starting their own business venture.”
Currently, Mr Matalau added that youths of Vanua Levu are mostly the ones enrolled at the centre due to the geographical location of the YTC.
“The ages range from 15 to 35 years of age and I am proud to say that last year, we had Fijian youths of other ethnic backgrounds. We look forward to compare how they progress after graduation for improvement purposes.”
Mr Matalau added that the response from the youths to enroll was very minimal when they started in 2018.
“At that time the Centre was only concentrating on basic Agriculture Certificate training. We embarked on a mission to make the Centre look attractive to the youths in what it offers and at the same time implant diversification on the knowledge and skills of the youths graduating from our YTC for empowerment purposes.”
“We have completed the layer bird farm infrastructure and now we are near completion of the knock down tank to provide Tilapia/Prawn management training. Hence, aquaculture as part of the YTC program is not on a trial basis but is here to stay given the benefits and outcomes it provides to the youths,” added Mr Matalau. Mr Matalau added that aquaculture must be encouraged in our communities across Fiji.
“We see that our ocean is becoming scarce with resources and this initiative will give consumers alternative choices such as tilapia, prawns and shrimp as well as give our ocean more opportunities to breed more and bigger fish.”
“This program once it starts proper will be an opportunity for our youths to be more diversified in skills which gives them more opportunities and choices to sustain their livelihood. We fully support the Ministry of Fisheries and Forestry drive in growing aquaculture and we know that through this program in the centre, more youths will be equipped and empowered in continuing in their respective communities.”
The Ministry of Fisheries and Forestry continues to encourage individuals and communities to engage with them and assist in growing the aquaculture sector. Please talk to any of our staff at your nearest Fisheries Service Centre to learn more of the programs that we have in place and how you can start your own tilapia, shrimp or prawn farm.