A $15 million commercial fish fish farming project in Uganda hangs in the balance now that one of its key partners, fish multiplication specialist Genomar, has pulled out.
Absence of a local, cost-effective source of fish feed accelerated the action, said project manager Deogratius Kasozi. “The feed itself is cheap but the cost of freight and the shelf life of only three months limited our options. Bringing it in by air was too expensive, while the long procurement cycle make imports by sea equally unviable as the stock expires before it even gets to the ponds,” he said.
The project was launched in 2005 to develop an integrated aquaculture operation with a fish hatchery and commercial fish farming aiming at yields of as much as 30,000 tonnes of tilapia annually by 2009.
Mr Kasozi says that Sungenor was trying to work with USAid to mobilise the industry to a point where it can support local manufacturing of fish feed.
Although there are many people currently growing fish in ponds, they have not been very successful because they are using poultry-based feeds, which impacts on yields. The more successful ones are engaged in growing lung fish, which is carnivorous and easier to breed. “Tilapia feeds from the top, which requires floating feed, as opposed to poultry feed, which sinks and eventually pollutes the ponds,” Mr Kasozi explained.
Initial estimates have put the cost of a fish feed plant at $2 million, an investment Mr Kasozi says would be justifiable only if it allowed the plant to achieve optimum output.
However, he said the objectives of the pilot project undertaken in 2005 had been realised with the fingerlings reaching the target weight of one kilogramme in six months. Yields were 50 per cent of the stock introduced, but Kasozi says this was expected because they had not put in place any controls against frogs and other amphibians that eat fingerlings.
The project was premised on the need to supplement fisheries from Lake Victoria, which, besides supplying a fish processing industry that has grown rapidly in the past 10 years, is exposed to massive demand for tilapia, the preferred fish in Uganda and most of the Great Lakes region. Sungenor says widespread commercial fish farming is the only way of saving Lake Victoria as it would absorb some of the pressure by using fast growing species to supply the domestic and export market.
Uganda’s earnings from formal fish exports surpassed the $136 million mark last year; it is estimated catches are over 250,000 tonnes annually. Growing demand for fish has led to more aggressive fishing methods that threaten the sustainability of the industry.
The project was expected to meet demand for fish in Uganda and neighbouring countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Congo and Sudan.
Compared with the strains developed by Genomar, wild tilapia can take as long as three years to reach a kilogramme of weight.
In trials undertaken in Masaka, 130 kilometres south of Kampala, control samples comprised of indigenous varieties took 12 months to achieve just 300 grammes of weight while the genetically developed varieties had achieved weights of 1kg in half that time.
According to the original plan, the project was expected to yield 10,000 tonnes of tilapia fish in the first year, beginning January 2006, before rising to 30,000 tonnes annually by 2009. Results from the pilot project indicated that annual output levels of between 10 tonnes and 40 tonnes per hectare were achievable in Uganda, but production had stagnated at the current level of one tonne per hectare mainly because of poor feed and water quality.
Besides its own commercial operation, Sungenor planned to introduce an outgrower scheme that it hoped would change the fishing culture in the Lake Victoria basin.
Declining catches from Lake Victoria continue to be a major concern in the region, even though recent studies have suggested an increase in fish stocks in the lake. At least four fish processing factories have closed down in Uganda during the past year, citing difficulties in getting fish supplies.
