Germany in Shs1.5b drive to promote responsible fishing around Lake Victoria

The Germany Government has given out over Shs1.5 billion to facilitate the development of fishing-related businesses across 15 districts neighboring Lake Victoria in Uganda.
The project leader for the Responsible Fisheries Business Chain Project (RFBCP) being implemented by a Germany-based international organization, GIZ, Mr Adolf Gerst said the money has been used to procure fishing equipment to facilitate proper and regulated activities, among the fishing communities to make their business more productive.
‘’We are looking at strengthening the existing actors in the fisheries sector, making them have more fish on the table, earning income, and providing more fish for the market,” Mr Gerst said.

According to him, most of the fishing communities in Uganda operate on a small scale and therefore, without supporting them, the sector will continue to face unending challenges which include fish depletion because of bad fishing methods.
The project targets groups of vulnerable households and communities which includes, artisan fishers and small and medium-sized enterprises within the fishery sector, with a target to reduce poverty.
‘’We have trained about 2,800 groups in several intervention areas, which include marketing management and soft skills, costing and pricing and financial linkage, responsible fishing, and fish handling and preservation among others,’’ he stressed.

The districts which have benefited are Amolator, Apac, Buyende, Serere, Oyam, Kaliro, Jinja, Buikwe, Buvuma, Mukono, Kampala, Wakiso, Mpingi, Kalungu, Kyotera, among others.
However, the government asked fishmongers to adopt other means of preserving fish other than use of firewood as a source of energy to smoke fish.

The acting director of fisheries resources management at the ministry of agriculture, animal industry, and fisheries, Dr Joyce Nyeko while officiating at the handover of the equipment to the fishers said, although the fishing community is being empowered to develop economically, urgent action is required to be taken to contain activities that lead to environmental degradation.
‘’Climate change is real, and implementation of actions to end such is vital for the country to mitigate the challenges of climate change,” she said.
She asked the local leaders at the grass root level to promote infrastructure that is sustainable to drive the growth of the sector.

According to John Bondyo, the chairperson of the Sliver Fish Najja Development Association at the Kiyindi land site and one of the beneficiaries of the project, their members income relatively increased due to the training acquired from the project.
However, despite GIZ support, Mr Bondyo said they are still facing challenges of storage facilities at the landing site.