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| LIFIDEP Support to promote fish farming/ Photo Credit: Gibip Bernard |
Recognizing the importance of fish
to food security and it's nutritional value, is one of the preoccupations of
the Livestock and Fisheries Development Project (a baby project of MIDENO)
headed by Mbipeh Pius Sirdiki. However, promoting fish farming or aquaculture which
should be done to maintain or sustain the farms, given the challenges that both
fisheries and aquaculture are face in terms of sustainability and governance is
what the project is trying to put in place. Notwithstanding, experts say the
solution is the development of sustainable aquaculture, that generates less
pollution, generates jobs, and ensure food self-sufficiency. Prospects are high
that Donga Mantung should regain its past glories by developing the aquaculture
sector.
This is so following the donation of
support equipment to some five fish farming groups of Ndu sub division. SKY FM
Ndu reports that beneficiary groups on July 2, 2017 went home with equipment
worth millions of FCFA. The package according to
news reports was made up of 15 wheelbarrows,150 pipes (100 diameter), 25
buckets, 25 shovels, 25 spades, 25 diggers, 100 boots, 100 gloves, 100 machetes
and 5 decameters tapes.
Areas that have
benefitted from this first support include Ntumbaw,Njilah,Ntamru and Boyar
quarter in Ndu. The initiative to bring back the culture of fish farming in
Donga Mantung Division has been greeted with enthusiasm by the few exiting fish
farmers and the would-be fish farmers. It should be recalled that in the late
80s, they were thousands of fish ponds in the Division but the lack of
fingerlings scared several farmers. More so, due to climate change some of the
water sources dried off. The abusive cultivation of eucalyptus trees in
wetlands is also one of the major factors. A similar exercise is expected in
Nkambe, Ndu, Nwa and Ako to enable fish farmers establish more fish farms that
could sustain their families.
The population’s appetite for fish
is steadily growing. Carps and tilapia currently make what is mostly available
in majority of farms.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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