Parks takes fish rearing to villages
THE National Parks and Wildlife Authority will soon embark on a massive fish rearing exercise countrywide targeting village communities under the Command Fishing programme.
The parks authority’s spokesperson, Mr Tinashe Farawo, told The Herald that the exercise is set to benefit every household at village level.
“Over the past months we have been moving around provinces and introducing fish rearing at provincial level. While we were doing this, the Zimbabwe National Water Authority was also moving around at village level constructing weirs.
“We are now going back to the weirs and engage village leaders about the Command Fishing programme and its set objectives and benefits.
“Our first set stop will be the Seke community where we will kickstart Command Fishing for villagers,” said Mr Farawo.
Over the past months, the parks authority has successfully launched fish rearing programmes in at least eight provinces under the Command Fishing initiative.
Under the initiative, Parks working with relevant Government departments managed to breed hundreds of thousands of fingerlings in provincial dams.
The exercise is set to boost food nutrition, economic development and job creation in these targeted areas.
Mr Farawo said fish rearing projects at provincial level proved to be a success hence the drive to launch Command Fishing at village level.
“We have set all the needed material and resources in Nyanga and Seke where we will roll out the rearing exercise.
“Our first objective is to train the villagers about fish and how to rear them on a daily basis.
“It is our hope to promote food nutrition in these areas, the rural communities have since been disadvantaged and we find it prudent to boost income-generation projects for them.
“At village level, our target is to produce small-scale fish farmers who will in turn complement commercial farmers. In the long run, we will now have sufficient fish for the country and start selling our products to regional countries,” he said.