5 000 Masvingo families venture into fish farming

OVER 5 000 families here have been cushioned from effects of successive droughts after the United Nations (UN) helped them to venture into commercial fish farming and bee-keeping.

In an interview on the sidelines of a tour of UN-funded projects in Tadzembwa Village in Chief Shumba’s area in Masvingo Central recently, Aquaculture–Zimbabwe country director, Mr Martin Dingwa said rural communities had great potential to be self-sufficient if provided with the right platform.

He said the El Nino-induced drought was a wake-up call for rural farmers to embrace drought resilient and mitigating strategies.

“We have trained more than 5 000 households in fish farming and bee (aquaculture and apiculture) since we came to Masvingo province in 2012,” said Mr Dingwa.

“The projects are in Mwenezi, Chiredzi, Masvingo rural, Bikita and Chivi districts where we launched an integrated agriculture system.”  Mr Dingwa said the organisation had facilitated the construction of fish ponds and weir dams in the province for the project‘s sustainability.

“The uptake by communities is very high as all communities that we have trained are still growing fish,” he said. “For the project to remain sustainable, we have facilitated the construction of water harvesting initiative through construction of weir dams.”

Mr Dingwa said fish have high nutritional value and provided a source of income for communities.

“Such projects are drought mitigating strategies as they ensure that families continue to access food even during droughts,” he said.

“They will use water from water dams to come up with fish ponds, get clean water to drink and irrigate their crops all year round.

“We train them on how to construct fish ponds measuring 20 x 50 square metres, maintain them and link them to the market.”

Chibvute Aquaculture project vice chairman Mr Pardon Madyiwa said the project had gone a long way in helping communities survive successive droughts that normally hit Masvingo province.

“We are grateful to Aquaculture Zimbabwe and other UN agencies for assisting us in coming up with such sustainable projects,” he said.

“Our families are now food secure all year round despite receiving erratic rains in this part of the country.

“At our fish pond, we have stocked more than 10 000 fingerlings and we normally harvest these fish after three months. We sell our fish to both individuals and shops, and the returns are good, as we realise meaningful income to send our children to school.”

Masvingo is a drought-prone province with reports that at least 600 000 people are in need of food mainly due to El Nino-induced drought.