Victory Farms has established a fish incubation machine that will produce 30 million tilapia fingerlings annually to bridge the fish deficit in Kenya.
Kenya is faced with a shortage of fish, which data from the directorate for Fisheries and Aquaculture development in the Blue Economy ministry puts as a deficit of 450,000 tonnes.
It is against this backdrop that Victory Farms, an aquaculture company operating at Rowo village in Suba South constituency, established the ultra-modern fingerlings hatchery to alleviate the tilapia shortage. The hatchery, constructed on the shore of Lake Victoria, is aimed at hatching tilapia eggs.
The company rears tonnes of fish in Lake Victoria through cage fish farming. The eggs obtained from the fish are collected and taken to the hatchery. In the hatchery, the eggs are cleaned and exposed to various machine support processes which hatch them into fingerlings.
The director of aquaculture at Kenya Fisheries Service, Simon Macharia, Homa Bay CEC for Fisheries Sarah Malit and Victory Farms’ co-founder Steve Moran, said they intend to boost fish production.
“The establishment of the hatchery machine was done after research findings revealed that there is shortage of tilapia in Kenya. We want to bridge the gap and enhance production of more fish in Kenya,” Moran said.
Tilapia is one of the chief sources of protein locally.
During the commissioning of the incubation machine on Tuesday, the officials said the fingerlings will be taken to branches of Victory Farms in various parts of the country.
Macharia said the fingerlings will also be used for supporting farmer groups to rear fish through aquaculture projects, to help ease the deficit.
“The country has been faced with a fish deficit of 450,000 tonnes. The government is putting efforts to bridge the gap and one of them is encouraging the private-public partnership which is happening here,” Macharia said.
Malit said the county is committed to promoting cage fish farming to reduce fishing pressure on Lake Victoria.
“These fingerlings will promote cage fish farming in fish ponds and the lake. The aquaculture project will eventually reduce conflicts in Lake Victoria,” Malit said.
“We will continue to create an enabling environment for investors to boost fish production in this county.”
Resident Joab Ikawa expressed optimism that the fingerlings production project will create employment for residents.
He said they initially perceived the establishment of the firm in the area as an eyesore. But the project has turned into a source of livelihood.
“This project is going to employ young people in this region. It will also enable elders to grow fishermen after retirement,” Ikawa said.
