Embrace aquaculture to fight unemployment, youth advised

Youth in the country have been advised to venture into fish farming in a bid to fight unemployment among them.
Principal Secretary, State Department for Fisheries, Aquaculture and the Blue Economy Prof Japhet Ntiba said the sector had potential to generate thousands of jobs and create wealth, with a view to alleviating poverty particularly in the rural areas.
Prof. Ntiba was speaking Thursday at a local hotel in Nyeri town during the official launch of Aquaculture Business Development Programme (ABDP).
ABDB was developed under collaboration between the Kenyan Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) aimed at increasing incomes, food security and nutritional status of poor rural households involved in aquaculture sector.
The PS told the youth to take advantage of the numerous projects being initiated by the national government to uplift their lives and increase their economic base.
Prof. Ntiba who represented Agriculture Cabinet secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said the envisaged jobs would be created through the value addition chain, thus benefiting the youth directly and indirectly.
“ABDP will seek to broaden and deepen the aquaculture value chains to increase the volume and value of fish and fish products produced and sold,” he said.
The programme will initially target 15 counties that have high concentrations of aquaculture activity, high production, existing sectoral infrastructure such as processing, marketing and research, adequate water resources and marketing potential.
Speaking during the same occasion, Nyeri governor Mutahi Kahiga said his administration would fully support the implementation of ABDP by allocating complementary funds to aquaculture through the County Integrated Development Plans.
Kahiga said that his government had facilitated the formation of a cooperative society to aggregate fish farmers which was formed and registered in 2014.
He added that the county had also sensitized farmers, bought deep freezers, initiated cage fish farming and with the Wamagana fish processing factory, the programme is bound to succeed without major challenges.
By Mwangi Gaitha