Lagos Empowers Fish Farmers

The Lagos State Government said it has empowered 40 youths in Afuwo community in Badagry with 40 cages of 1000 juvenile catfish per cage under its cage culture project.

This, it stated, was part of efforts to increase economic use of its open water to develop cage farming aspect of aquaculture and improve nutrition in the state.

The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Gbolahan Lawal, revealed this during an inspection tour of the facility, held recently in Lagos.

Lawal, explained that the Cage Culture System of Fish Farming is one of the ways being championed by the state government to maximize benefits of the abundance of water resources in the State which accounts for about 22 percent of the State’s landmass.

He described the system as an environmental friendly way of increasing fish supply in the state as well as increasing foreign exchange spent on fish importation, noting that the cage culture would create employment opportunities both directly and indirectly.

According to him, cage culture system was a cheaper method of fish rearing which allows for fish to be reared in their natural habitat stressing that no fewer than 40,000 fishes would be harvested at the Afowo fish farm, Badagry, at the end of the four month rearing period.

“I am particularly happy and satisfied that the local community has shown her unflinching support for this initiative right from the installation stage. I am even more delighted that the cages were constructed with native material and the fish would be fed just like in concrete fish ponds,” he added.