News & Views
Zimbabwe’s ambitious fingerling distribution scheme hits 4 million 

Zimbabwe’s Presidential Community Fisheries Scheme, which was launched this year, reported that it has been able to distribute 4,357,500 million fingerlings. 

This growth initiative is part of the president’s initiative to increase production to 55,000 metric tonnes by 2025 aims to improve food security, foster fish farming, and improve the livelihoods of at least 16,000 households in rural communities, according to the Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development ministry. The country’s fish production currently stands at 33,000 metric tonnes annually, almost half of the 60,000 metric tonnes of annual demand.

Among the beneficiaries of this multimillion scheme are schools, village business units and youth groups with a total of 1,200 dams already certified for stocking. 

So far, 24 dams, 852 fish ponds, and cages have been stocked with fingerlings as the country eyes a potential US$1 billion in revenue from its aquaculture sector. The government hopes this will boost the country’s economy which is currently shattered by several Western economic sanctions. 

Against this background, the southern African country has already attracted US$500,000 in funding from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for technical support aimed at accelerating its fish breeding and production. 

This will potentially help the country to produce 166 million fingerlings per season, a big increase from the current nine million. 

The country’s rural population accounts for 68 per cent of its annual fish consumption in both volume and value, while the urban community accounts for 32 per cent of its annual expenditure on fish consumption. Fish consumption per capita is about 1.2-3 kilograms. 

Fish farming in Zimbabwe is dominated by the culture of Oreochromis niloticus followed by Oncorhynchus mykiss. Over 90 per cent of the cultured fish is Oreochromis niloticu, which comes from Lake Kariba.