Making fish farming profitable

Fish can spur Malawi’s race to create one million jobs and enhance livelihoods.

But fish farmers and cooperatives demand quality fingerlings and feed for improved catch while processors and traders keep losing potential revenue due to lack of value-addition facilities and skills.

The Fisheries Department estimates that the country loses up to 40 percent of its fish to poor handling. It envisages value addition increasing the market value and shelf life of the fish.

The department is implementing Sustainable Fisheries, Aquaculture Development Project to improve fish production, value addition and consumption.

The five-year initiative funded by the African Development Bank also promotes watershed management and resilience to climate change as farmers, processors and traders adopt market-oriented approaches to boost their gains along the value chain.

However, groups involved in fish farming and processing cooperatives require improved access to quality feed, fingerlings and processing facilities to profit.

Kenneth Mtambo of Masysesye Fish Farming Corporative in Chitipa is optimistic that his group can produce over four tonnes, as they do currently, given quality fingerlings and feed.

“Most fish farmers are using recycled fingerlings that hardly grow big due poor and inadequate feeding,” he explains.

This fuels fish scarcity in Chitipa,where prices almost double as vendors lift catches from Lake Malawi in the neighbouring Karonga.

“To make fish affordable and accessible, more farmers need to be trained and certified as hatchery operators to meet the growing demand for fingerings,” says Mtambo.

Chamangwali Corporative in Karonga supplies fingerlings in the shoreline district.

They plan to expand its pond acreage for intensive and integrated aquaculture, but lacks essential construction materials, water pumps and vans for transporting fingerlings.

Kestor Sichali, chairperson of the group, hopes bigger ponds will increase the profit.

“Karonga lies along the lake, but the demand for fingerings is higher than our capacity. Most of the fingerings die on the way due to lack of proper props such as oxygen cylinders,” he states.

The call for greater investment in fish farming is rising as catches from natural water bodies, including lakes, are falling due to overfishing, falling water levels, environmental mismanagement and climate change.

Amid unpredictable catches coming on shore, Mphalamasa Cage, a corporative in Rumphi, harvests two tonnes per cage.

Its chairperson Bright Msiska says keeping fish in cages is more promising and profitable than ponding. To sell more fish, the group requires training and modern facilities for fish processing, cooling and transportation.

“We harvest all the fish from the cage at once, but this chokes the local market and some fish perished due to lack of cold storage facilities,” Msiska recalls.

The group requires a van with cooling facilities for transport fresh fish to markets.

In Henga Valley, Rumphi, 70 farmers under Mdimwa Fish Farming Corporative profit less due to uncoordinated stocking, which leads to overharvesting.

They wish they could constantly supply the market undersupplied by catches from Lake Malawi on the northern side of the district and Karonga.

Morton Harawa, chairperson of the Rumphi fish farmers Association, says fish farmers struggle to meet the rising demand due to lack of quality feed and skills to write winning funding proposals.

Similar sentiments are echoed by Layness Chavula, chairperson of the 60-member M’dundundu Fish and Diary Corporative in Mzuzu.

“The demand for fish is huge and farmers are keen to produce more, but we are constrained by scarcity of quality fingerlings and fish feed. Most farmers cannot afford them,” she laments.

She reckons training village-based hatchery operators and a factory for making floating fish feed would help improve the situation.

The five-year project by the Fisheries Department is supporting fish farming corporatives to overcome the barriers and reap the benefits of their enterprises.

The support includes vital equipment, inputs as well as rehabilitation and installation of modern fish processing and handling facilities.

The aquaculture cooperatives will also get skills in how to run profitable fish-based enterprises.

Duncan Magwira, a community development specialist for the AfDB-funded project, assures cooperatives of speedy procurement and delivery of construction materials, inputs and refrigerated fish vans.

The project is expected to deliver 10 million quality fingerlings, produce 20 000 tonnes of fish feed and create about 100 000 jobs among the youth.