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Zimbabwe eyes Improved Catfish Production with support from TAAT
The government’s push to improve catfish production in Zimbabwe recently received a significant boost after the African Development Bank (AfDB) extended a US$5,738 funding facility through the Worldfish Centre-led project to support catfish farming.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Department (FARD) director Mr Milton Makumbe said the money would be used to buy material for four beneficiaries who were selected to do breeding programmes during the recent catfish production training held under the Technical Assistance for Agricultural Transformation in Countries in Transition Project (TSF).
“They will be given the material they requested for the same value, not money. For a novel sector to develop, the first key step is to have more players that you can give start-up inputs, which in the case of catfish, will be the first step towards generating in participants. This is where we currently are. We are pushing to disseminate adequate knowledge and establish local markets,” he said.
The four beneficiaries comprise three breeders and one fish feed manufacturer.
“Being a fairly uncommon species for consumption in Zimbabwe due to religious aspects, catfish farming is practised by very few farmers.
“However, due to a diverse pool of desirable growth and stress resistance traits, we have very large catfish that are desirable on the export market. This requires us to find out how to expand to West African and Asian markets for economic growth,” added Mr Makumbe.
He said the country could produce approximately 250,000 catfish fingerlings per year, which can even be surpassed given the knowledge imparted to farmers during training on production techniques. Their awareness of the advantages of catfish production compared to tilapia will bolster this.
TSF is an intervention that leverages the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) platform for maximum impact. TAAT is the African Development Bank’s flagship programme, launched in 2018. It represents a transformative initiative aimed at reversing the trend of declining food productivity in Africa.
TAAT’s primary objective is to introduce modern food production technologies to 40 million farmers across over 45 African countries, focusing on supporting young people and women in low-income regions. The programme operates through a Regional Food Technology Delivery Infrastructure comprising international, national, and regional research institutions, seed companies, extension service providers, and financial institutions, among other stakeholders.
In Zimbabwe, the aquaculture project’s first activity is strengthening Innovation Platform (IP) networks and stakeholders (such as agricultural extensions), focusing on agribusiness for access to proven agricultural and food production technologies and co-operative factors that help ensure productivity increases (in collaboration with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa).
The other nugget is building capacity in young agribusiness owners for effective operations through mentorship, partnerships/networking, and links to finance.
The project’s objectives are to organise demonstrations and training workshops for extension staff, fish breeders, and farmers on climate-resistant catfish seeds, mass production of catfish fingerlings, quality low-cost fish feed, and better management practices (BMPs).
The project also strengthens the capacity of aquaculture stakeholders and enterprises to adopt best practices in the production and marketing of fish that meet the required standards of regional economic communities.
It will equally organise training programmes for IP networks on quality catfish fingerlings production and agribusiness development.
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