By Agnes Nantambi

Fish dealers have called upon the Government to intervene in fish feeds production.The dealers complain that the feeds on the market are sub-standard and lead to stunted growth, affecting the profitability of fish farming.

Speaking at the 6th annual fish farmers symposium and trade fair at the Industrial Research Institute last week, Allen Kusasira, from the Source of the Nile Fish farm said poor fish feeds are incapacitating farmers as they cannot even recover the capital invested in fish farming.
She suggested that the

Government can help feed producers by providing them with the necessary machinery and improved feed ingredients.

“Because the ingredients are got from different places, the quality is very poor,” she said.

She called upon the fisheries ministry to organize farmers and address their challenges.

Dr Nelly Isyagi, an aquaculture specialist from Aquaculture Consultancy Management said lack of technical services for fish farmers is partly responsible for low production.

She noted that access to financial services is still a big challenge for the fish breeders leading to low production.

“Currently it is very expensive for farmers to access finance, they cannot expand operations and the cost of extending electricity on farms is high,” she said.

She asked the Governmnet to intesify the rural electrification programme