Aquaculture in Kenya

•         Aquaculture in Kenya follows a pattern similar to many countries in Africa. 

•         It is characterized by low levels of pond production that have stagnated over the past decade. 

•         Fish farming was introduced by the colonialists for the purpose of sport fishing at the beginning of the 1900s and it evolved to static water pond culture of tilapine fish in the 1920s, later supplemented by common carp and catfish. 

•         Trout was subsequently introduced as a riverine sport fish. 

•         In order to be able to produce seed for the warm water and cold water species for stocking of rivers, dams and ponds, the colonialists set up two fish farms in 1948, the Sagana Fish Farm (for warm water species) and the Kiganjo Trout Farm (for cold water species). 

•         Mariculture was introduced in the late 1970s with the establishment of the Ngomeini Prawn Farm as a pilot project.

•         Fish farming in rural Kenya was made popular in the 1960s through the 'Eat More Fish' campaign. 

•         Following the campaigns of the post-independence era outlined above (Kenya achieved independence in December 1963, and was established as a republic in December 1964) the number of fish farmers increased considerably to over 20 000, 

•         but production only rose from;

–  900 tonnes in 1980, to 

–  1 080 tonnes in 1985 and to  – 1 012 tonnes in 2003. 

•         Since then it has maintained this level. 

•         Aquaculture takes many different forms ranging from the small hand-dug 'kitchen ponds' to fairly large earth ponds of 1 000 m². 

•         Dams and other impoundments used for storing water are often stocked with fish and harvested periodically. 

•         Intensive commercial fish culture has been attempted at the Baobab Farm at Mombasa, Dominion farms, Kamuthanga fish farm among others using circular concrete ponds and raceways. 

•         Cage culture, on the other hand, is being attempted along the shores of Lake Victoria and in some dams in Central Kenya with some degree of success. 

•         This development follows the efforts of the Department of Fisheries to promote aquaculture as one of the means to eradicate poverty and hunger. 

•         During the preparation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in 2000, the Government identified aquaculture development as a core activity for funding through the current Medium Term Expenditure Framework budgeting system. 

•         The last decades have been marked by aggressive research, training and private sector involvement in aquaculture. Production in real terms has doubled and is set to grow by over 1 000 percent (ten times) in the next years. 

•         The prevailing conditions combine good prices and high demand, which are likely to boost fish production from aquaculture

•         Thanks to the Economic Stimuli Project, the Kenyan aquaculture sector production has increased to 12,000 MT/y, which represent 7% of national fish production as compared to the 1,000 MT/y produced in the year 2000 (Munguti et al., 2014). 

•         The ESP programme is Kenya’s development blueprint covering the period between 2008 and 2030 commonly known as

Vision 2030. 

•         The program vision is based on three pillars that is; the economic pillar, the social pillar and the political pillar with the aims of providing high quality life for all its citizens by the year 2030” through rapid creation of business opportunities and jobs. 

•         Aquaculture was incorporated into the ESP by the MoFD in 2009 in order to improve nutrition, alleviate poverty and create over 120,000 employment opportunities 

•         The ESP programme first phase in the 2009/2010 financial year saw each of 140 political constituencies benefit with funds for 200 fish ponds (measuring on average 300m²), 15 kilograms of fertilizer and 1 000 fingerlings of monosex tilapia per pond. 

•         The second phase in the 2011/2012 financial year saw an additional 100 fish ponds for the first 140 constituencies and 20 new constituencies benefit with 300 fish ponds making a total of 48 000 ponds costing about 15 million US dollars.

•         However despite the enormous amount of resources in use very little had been done to unearth and document the level of success of the first phase, lessons learnt or challenges before going into the subsequent phase. 

•         Therefore although an increasing number of developing countries were turning to aquaculture, its beneficial attributes were often ignored. 

•         It is important that its potential benefits and challenges are identified with agricultural and rural development professionals, policy makers as well as with the local farmers.