IFAD Official Urges Support For Fish Farmers

Communication Officer, Mr Adamu  Mouktar of IFAD-FGN Community Based National Resources Management Programme (CBNRMP), has tasked Delta Government on funding of Uvwie Fish Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative Society (MPCS) in Ekpan.

Mouktar, who was part of the Federal Government and IFAD officials on a Supervision Mission to project sites in Delta,told newsmen in Asaba on Wednesday that the fish farmers would do better with revolving loans.

The IFAD team visited the Uvwie Fish Farmers MPCS in Ekpan and Agu-Ofu Tapioca Farmers Group in Odu-Ugba Farm Settlement in Ibusa, Oshimili North Local Government Areas of the state.

The communication specialist said  what the team saw in the field was an indication that fish farming would be a good venture, adding that with adequate financing, the venture could be sustained with more people getting involved.

He called on policy makers to assist the farmers to sustain the venture so as to create jobs for the teeming unemployed people.

He commended IFAD for training some of the fish farmers at the Songhai Integrated Farm at Bunu Tai in Rivers State, stressing that they needed more training to sustain their business.

“Fish farming may be a straight forward thing but it appears it is a very expensive venture. And it was very clear to us that if these young men had enough resources, even the sky will not be their limit.

“It was obvious that some of them need some financing. If the banks are not cooperating, then I think government has a role to play here by, may be, instituting a revolving loan.

“Revolving, in the sense, that some beneficiaries will take and as they pay back some others will also benefit and in that sense, I think government would have done well in making the venture sustainable.