Fish expert calls for organised market
KASEMPA District Fisheries Officer (DFO) Jacob Chilembo has bemoaned lack of an organised market such as Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to buy fish from both small and large scale fish farmers.
In an interview with National Agricultural Information Services (NAIS) in Kasempa recently, Mr Chilembo noted that there was so much untapped potential in Kasempa that once a ready market for fish and fish products was established it can be actualised.
Mr Chilembo also called on fish farmers to strictly observe the fish stocking ratio in fingerling production so as to increase and produce quality fingerlings.
He advised fish farmers to stock 1 male fish to 3 females per 5 to 7 square meters so as to create a conducive breeding environment that will ultimately facilitate high production rate.
He also called on farmers to put all the basic requirements before venturing into finger- ling production.
Mr. Chilembo has since advised farmers to visit the district fisheries offices in their respective districts to seek guidance on how to go about fingerling production as opposed to commencing the project without knowledge.
He added that fingerling production in fish farming was a business that once done with proper care can improve the livelihood of many small scale farmers.
He noted that failure to observe the correct stocking rate in fingerling production could lead to losses as the production would not be as expected.
“Kasempa has over 300 fish farmers that are actively engaged in fish farming although my office is not managing to constantly reach out to them due to erratic flow of Recurrent Departmental Charges”, he said.
He has since appealed to government to consider providing consistence flow of resources so as to help his office meet targeted outputs.
The fisheries expert thanked government for furnishing his office with transport aimed at facilitating easy mobility to different work areas.