Farmers in Uasin Gishu County have benefited from the diversification programme that was being funded by the county government and the department of fisheries.
Speaking in his office, senior fisheries officer Cosmas Lang‘at said that fish farming has enabled them to have stable income and food security.
He also said the venture has enabled them utilise the small pieces of land they have.
“We have had an increase of fish farmers from 975 to 1,800 in the whole county which is a good number,” noted Lang'at.
He said that there are 300 fishponds in Uasin Gishu County in which they distributed 500,000 fingerlings to 410 farmers.
Lang’at further explained that county government had set aside Sh10 million to set up a hatchery at Chepkoilel and Sh2.5 million to make it operational as this will enable farmers get seeds and feeds at subsidized rates.
He urged farmers to use raised fish ponds and green houses to facilitate higher growth and production.
Isaack Bowen, a farmer in Uasin Gishu, said that they have been able to rear three species of fish Nile perch ( lates niloticus), Tilapia(Oreochromis niloticus) and cat fish (Siluriformes) since the temperatures in this region are between 12-24 degrees celcious and they have been doing well.
Bowen said that they were facing some few challenges like temperature changes, shortage of water and slow fish growth.
Despite all that, we are happy the county government come up with a co-operative called Uasin Gishu fish farmers and marketers that help in giving out loans to farmers at low interests.