By Elijah Phompho
Authorities at Kasinthura Fisheries have revealed that the fish farm is failing to meet its projected production levels due to inadequate financial and human capital and this has resulted in loss of K480 million revenue for the once thriving farm.
In an interview, Project Coordinator for the fish farm Robert Kafakoma said out of the fish farm’s production capacity of about 160 tones of table size fish, the fish farm is only able to produce a quarter of that in a production cycle of six months.
Kafakoma also said that there is a significant reduction in the production capacity of fingerings at the fish farm as it is only producing a quarter of the 30 million production capacity.
He attributed the loss of over 600,000 United States dollars (about K480 million) in revenues at the fish farm to these factors and warned that the farm risk being closed if government doesn’t bail out.
“As Kasinthula fish farm we are really struggling to meet our stalking levels. This is due to financial and human capital constraints which as a fishery we are going through currently. The development has made us fail to meet our projected revenue base. We therefore would like to request if government would consider bailing us out,” said Kafakoma.
Meanwhile, the fish farm has been assigned to train smallholder fish farmers on best fish farming management practices under the Sustainable Fisheries, Aquaculture Development and Water Shed Management (SIFAD) project being sponsored by the African Development Bank.
Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Nancy Tembo recently retaliated government’s commitment to diversify the country’s revenue base with fish farming saying it has potential to become the country’s major Forex earner apart from tobacco which she said has been facing resistance from a global health ant smocking campaign.
Kasinthula Aquaculture Center was established in 1975 following an FAO funded project which sought to establish it as satellite station for the National Aquaculture Center in Domasi.
