LIFIDEP Hands Support to Boost Sustainable Fish Farming in Donga Mantung

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.

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