Aquaculture farmers at the Karovho Fish Farm in the Kavango Region have called on the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources to avail more equipment and provide transport to sustain the underperforming fish farm.
The employees at the farm says they are in dire need of various fish farming apparatus’ that will enable them to monitor the water quality in each pond to ensure that the water conditions are suitable for the fish. The group’s spokesperson, Mathias Ndonga, said they requested for a vehicle to be stationed at the fish farm but they have not received any response from the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources that had initiated the fish project.
“We are in need of a vehicle to transport our produce to town for selling purposes because it is difficult for us to walk with our produce to the selling points,” he said.
“In the past we pleaded with the ministry to provide us with insecticides and pesticides because our crops are being destroyed by pests and insects-we are still waiting, ” Ndonga said.
The ministry has recently decided to contract a new local fish feed provider which the fish farmers are not happy with.
Ndonga said the fish feed is of less quality compared the fish feed they used to import from South Africa. “Fish feed is not supposed to sink once it is placed in the water, therefore we have a problem with the feed that is acquired locally,” said one of the workers.
“If fish feed sinks when placed in water, the farmer will not know whether the fish are eating or not. Right now we only change the water condition once we notice that the mortality is high among the fish,” he said.
Fish feed and water quality also determines the growth rate of the fish, therefore we need the equipment and better fish feed to increase production.
Several fish breeds such as Tilapia, and Three Spot and sometimes Catfish are bred at the farm.
The horticulture section produces onions, carrots, spinach, butternuts, green pepper and tomatoes.
2012 New Era