Organic Agriculture Africa Blog

Increasing fingerling production for small-scale producers

Hatchery operator Rose Grey Sports, Essim M´bwana © Emmanuel Banda/ GIZ

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Mrs. Rose Grey Sports, a hatchery operator in Phalombe District in the Southern Region of Malawi, aims at improving the production, distribution, and accessibility of quality fingerlings to allow more households to engage in aquaculture. She aspires to set a good example for other businesses in the aquaculture sector: “Small-scale producers don’t only motivate and inspire others, but their ideas could be helpful to any type of producer”. 

Mrs. Sports currently runs six ponds on her farm, producing more than four tons of fish every year. “Operating a hatchery has its obstacles. High quality fish feed and the right fish farming equipment are expensive and hard to come by in Malawi. Additionally, our work is made even more difficult by thieves who tamper with our fishponds”, explains Mrs. Sports. But she won’t let setbacks discourage her and she is confident that consumers will choose local production over imported goods because of their higher nutritional value. 

GIZ’s Aquaculture Value Chain Project (AVCP) – implemented on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) – supported Mrs. Sports to become a reliable producer and supplier of fingerlings to fish farmers within her region. She can sell an average of 12,000 fingerlings per year at an affordable price. This helped her to grow her business and had a big impact on surrounding fish farmers: “My customers no longer have to worry about high transportation costs. Since they are from within my village, they only need to cover short distances, which has improved the overall handling of fingerlings as well. Previously, buying fingerlings from locations far from Phalombe meant high mortality rates of the fingerlings”. 

The support of the production of fingerlings, like Ms. Rose Grey Sports received it, is only one of AVCPs approaches for the objective: To improve the access of the food insecure population to more fish products and a higher income from sustainable and resource-conserving aquaculture in pond farming. The capacity building for sustainable fish production through environmentally, socially, and economically sound methods has been adapted and is used by around 5.000 fish farmers by 2023. To strengthen the fish value chain and increase value gain, around 150 farmer groups are supported. Multi-stakeholder platforms were established to promote knowledge exchange and the awareness campaign “Fish for Nutrition” on the importance of fish for good nutrition has been launched.

 

Are you interested in the project, its approach and the different manuals and guides to adapt best practices for yourself? Then take a look at our YouTube videos and read our knowledge products.

For more information on sustainable aquaculture, visit the Website of the Global Programme sustainable fisheries and aquaculture by GIZ to find more videos, project descriptions and knowledge products.

 

 

Lukas Novaes Tump
Author: Lukas Novaes Tump

The Global Programme “Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture” is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The aim of the programme is to increase the fish supply from sustainable and resource-friendly fisheries and aquaculture to boost healthy and diverse nutrition in Cambodia, India, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Uganda, and Zambia. Sustainable production and processing techniques are promoted along the value chain to create jobs and income, with a special focus on

The Organic Agriculture Africa Blog features sustainable farming practices and organic solutions tailored for African farmers. It addresses unique challenges like soil health, crop protection, water conservation and much more with practical strategies.
 
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