Hon. Peter Munya this weekend completed a tour of the Lake Basin Region where he launched projects worth KES 700 million to boost aquaculture and assist fishing communities affected by floods and COVID-19 and handed over farm machinery to rice producers. – By Gerald Gekara
The Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives launched Five projects, funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Friday targeting the youth and women, who bear the brunt of the disruption by adverse weather and loss of employment due to the pandemic.
Ms. Carla Mucavi, the FAO Country Representative announced the upcoming opening of a Kisumu office to work closely with the LBREC, adding that fundraising efforts were underway to increase funding to the region to KES 1 billion.
Speaking at a workshop to endorse the Lake Region Economic Bloc Aquaculture Investment Blueprint, CS Munya noted the significant contribution of the Aquaculture sector to the counties and national GDP.
“Globally, aquaculture production has increased by 30 percent every decade for the past 50 years. African production represents a meager 2 percent of global production, which is dominated by Asia, and Kenya only represents 4 percent of the African market, which is led by South Africa at 56 percent”, Munya said.
The CEO of the Lake Basin Region Economic Bloc, Mr. Abala Wanga, presented the resolutions which recommend the allocation of 3% of the total annual national budget allocation to the Ministry to develop the aquaculture and fisheries sector.
The Bloc also seeks to have revenue collected from fish plowed back to improve infrastructure. The resolutions also seek the amendment of the Fisheries Management and Development Act (2016), to include operationalization of cage culture, review and lower tax bands on aquaculture inputs
Kisumu Senator Rose Nyamunga who read Host Governor Anyang’ Nyong’os statement reiterated the urgency of investing in infrastructure in the region’s counties, “the Lake Region has the potential to feed the nation if infrastructure challenges are addressed”, she said.
