By Bahle Gama
Director of Agriculture Nelson Mavuso says the level of consumption and farming of fish is very low in the country, but there is room for improvement.
This he said can be done by constructing more fishponds beyond consumption and more for commercial purposes.
In an interview, Mavuso said emaSwati in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture must improve aquaculture (fish farming) in the country.
“We need to promote fish farming in homes and encourage digging dams and utilise our rivers to farm fish through the Agriculture Promotion Project. We have not done much as a country and we believe with the different technologies being introduced we will see a difference,” he said.
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Mavuso further stated that farmers needed to invest more in fish farming for nutrition purposes. He said fish are an important part of a healthy and well-balanced diet because they provide a good source of protein and vitamins which are a primary dietary source of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
He further said that fish farming is one way to curb the unemployment rate which young people can invest in and help improve their lives and that of their families and communities.
“Agriculture is one of the sectors which young people need to tap into because, through fish farming as a community project, many would beat two birds with one stone. They would be curbing both unemployment and hunger,” he said.
As a means of encouraging and growing aquaculture in the country, the Taiwan Technical Mission launched a project called Eswatini Taiwan Agriculture Project.
In 2022, the Republic of China in Taiwan funded Eswatini with about E52 million for an aquaculture four-year project that will be carried out in two phases.
Project Manager Andrew Su said the project includes an aquaculture centre meant to promote family to commercial aquaculture. The centre will be at Malkerns where emaSwati farmers will be equipped with commercial aquaculture.
The introduction of aquaculture in Eswatini will play a huge role in improving the lives of Emaswati as it will provide farmers with all necessary guidance.
Su said the construction of the aquaculture centre would also be in two phases which is the construction of the laboratory to keep the Tilapia breeder and reservoir to maintain necessary water.
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He said that the objectives of the project were to construct an aquaculture centre to provide tilapia fry (small fish) for local farmers and establish a standard operation process (SOP) to improve the quality and cultivation techniques.
He said the training would be availed for fish farmers and Ministry of Agriculture technicians to increase the capacity of aquaculture technology and knowledge.
“The project will also develop low-cost formula fish food as an alternative commercial concentrate to reduce economic pressure. This initiative is a result of a proposal that was made in 2020 by the Ministry,” Su said.
The Project Manager said aquaculture is also part of the five major development projects proposed by His Majesty King Mswati III to Taiwan in 2019 and a key area of collaboration between the two countries within the governments’ Africa Project.
Su further noted that Eswatini is a landlocked country that boasts abundant river sources. However, the local aquaculture lacks the necessary resources and imports nearly 90 per cent of its aquatic products.
He further said development bottlenecks included inadequate local fry (small fish) supply, high cost of imported fish feed and shortage of technical training resulting in low production.
