restoring malawi's fish population

Fish is the most reliable source of protein in Malawi. Most of the fish on the market in Malawi comes from Lake Malawi which runs almost covering the length of the country from the North. There are a number of species of fish in the waters of Malawi, most of them known to be tasty and nutritious. The majority of the species are the tilapia family.The chambo fish are the most exclusive of the tilapia in Malawi.

However, the fish in most water bodies in Malawi face danger of extinction. This is a growing problem world over. Over-fishing and pressure continue to threaten fish sources and where nothing is being done by way of redress, the situation deteriorates

Twenty years ago, Lake Malawi-also known as the calendar lake because it runs almost 365 kilometres- could produce 30,000 tons of fish every year. That’s history.

Today, fishermen struggle to catch a mere 2000 tons of fish from the same lake as fish stocks are fast disappearing. This has called for instant action to ensure that fish continues to be accessible. And the Malawi government is encouraging the efforts.

One readily available option is fish farming and that has begun in Malawi although at a considerably slow pace given the rate of consumption of available fish.

In our special report this week George Kalungwe looks at existing available solutions and efforts being employed to ensure that fish is accessible to all, all year round.

Malawi is famous for its beautiful lake, which covers one third of the country.

And it is not surprising that fish from the lake are a very important food for Malawians.

In fact, fish provide 70 per cent of the protein eaten in the country. But fish in the lake are becoming scarce.

Over the last 20 years, the amount of fish being caught in the lake has decreased from around 30,000 tons per year, to around 2000 tons.

And the reasons for this decline? Population growth and over-fishing.

In response, the Malawi government is encouraging people to do fish farming, also known as aquaculture.

Up to now, however, the adoption of fish farming has been very slow.

One major problem for new fish farmers is that good quality fish seed and young fish – known as fingerlings – are not easily available in the country.

Daniel Jamu, is a scientist at the World Fish Centre, explains the problem.

“One of the major bottlenecks for aquaculture is the availability of quality seed. Presently, until recently, the government has been the major supplier of quality seed and farmers have been exchanging fingerlings not through well organised hatcheries but just using fingerlings which remain after harvest. So these also have led to problems of productivity,” he says.

Agnes Kachepa left her job as a teacher several years ago to start a fish farming business.

Now, the money she makes through aquaculture is much more than her former teaching salary.

But she says she needs good quality fingerlings to help her improve her yield and allow her to play her part in improving Malawi’s fish farming output.

So how can the supply of good quality small fish be improved?

A development programme called Research into Use, funded by the UK government, is trying to help.

The programme has created what it calls a Platform for Fish Farming Innovation.

Through this platform, private companies are now getting involved in breeding good quality fish seed.

“Research Into Use we have assisted the platform with an innovation fund which we call Seed Money so as to involve the various sectors in the platform to assist in making the fingerlings more available. So in this context the platform was decided to involve the private sector to assist in the multiplication of the improved strains of the fingerlings,” says Nobel Moyo, coordinator of the programme in Malawi.

Malawi’s National Aquaculture Centre is one of the partners in the fish farming platform.

The Centre is using high quality floating nets, called hapas, to breed thousands of fingerlings.

John Kandapo, a research officer at the Centre, admits this is something that farmers would find difficult to do on their own.

“Farmers do not have capacity like we have here. They have small ponds and even the modern hatchery we have here the farmers do not have them. And also the financial constraints to buy these hapas, they are expensive like you can see here, we bought these from Thailand,” Mr. Kandapo says.

Working together, the National Aquaculture Centre and the World Fish Centre have developed a very strong breeding programme to produce high quality young fish.

These fish are able to grow 60 per cent faster than the ones that Malawi’s fish farmers have been raising themselves.

Mr. Daniel Jamu explains, the programme is working with several private fish hatcheries. 

“What we have done through the support of the Research Into Use Programme is to increase capacity at three private hatcheries and these hatcheries have been given money to increase capacity.

“This capacity is in terms of monitoring both production and environmental and this capacity also has enabled them to start using high quality feed for production of fingerlings.

“We hope that with this they should be able to produce fish which is free from disease, of good condition but also we know the age of the fingerlings so that farmers can now start using quality fingerlings,” says Mr. Jamu.

As well as improving the supply of fingerlings, Malawi’s Fish Farming Innovation platform is also looking at other major challenges, such as supply of good quality feed, extension services and the need for better information and marketing systems.

But despite these challenges, John Kandapo is positive about the future for fish farming.

“Yes a special message to farmers that if they take fish farming as a serious business then there is real potential for them to improve their incomes,” he says.

Mr. Nobel Moyo is also very pleased with the direction that fish farming in Malawi is now taking as more and more individuals demonstrate interest in contributing to increased access to fish protein.

Fish farming has thus mushroomed in most parts of the country and this is a development that should demonstratively be encouraged.

Malnutrition continues to be a bother in Malawi because access to affordable high nutritive value foods is minimal. Fish farming is evidently one sure way of making sure that protein is always available to every citizen.

Through the on-going work as well, fish farming in Malawi is improving and helping to reduce pressure on the waters of the country’s famous lake.

So while stock replenish in beautiful Lake Malawi, upland, people are not left wanting of this important food supply; fish.