Most fish in Uganda comes from lakes Victoria, Albert, Kyoga, Edward, George and about 160 minor lakes and rivers.

Fish production of most lakes in Uganda has changed considerably since development of most of the fisheries started during the first half of the 20th century.

Fish farming on Lake Kyoga in Uganda primarily focuses on commercially valuable introduced species like Nile perch and Nile tilapia, which dominate the catch due to their high productivity after being introduced in the 1950s

 However, the lake also supports a variety of native fish species, with "mukene" (Rastrineobola argentea) being another significant catch, though its population has fluctuated over time. 

Against this background, the writer interacted with Ms Catherine Akello who has been engaged in fish farming right from her childhood to date where she is leading fisheries Association to help members progress and below are the details.

Background

Ms Catherine Akello hails from Nansale Sub County in Amolator district and she is heading an Association called Bagala Fishing Association which belongs to Boat owners comprising of 30 members.

Ms Akello explained that she grew up while farming fish on Bangladesh landing site in L Kyoga where they mostly fished Tilapia and Nile Perch.

She is a qualified accountant having completed her Studies in 2004 at Makerere University majoring in accounting. She is also teacher and a business lady by practice

Having completed her studies she worked in a private institute called Armpass Technical Services as a finance officer and later she worked with Talk telecom as an accountant before leaving for Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to join her Husband who by then was working with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

However she later returned to Kampala and that’s how she got back to fish farming and trading and formed their Association.

How the farming business all started

It is in the year 2020 where Ms Akello ventured into the fish value chain as she joined other fishermen in Lake Kyoga and purchased a boat to invest in Mukene fish farming.

This is after a team of scientists from the National Agricultural Fisheries Resources Research Institute in Jinja came on ground with partners from Germany International Cooperation Society to sensitize the members about the entire fish value chain.

This starts with monitoring the fish breeding process, going in the waters to fish the right size of fish in a bid to obtain the expected income and smoking up to marketing stage.

However the members were faced with challenge of Covid-19 lockdown where they halted their activities briefly.

In 2023, she owned 10 boats as a family which they used to fish mainly Mukene, Tilapia and Nile perch fish species.

It is at this point that they formed an association called Bagala fishing Association for boat owners fishing on Lake Kyoga comprising of 30 members.

Later the number of boat owners expanded and now they have 26 Associations of boat owners across Lake Kyoga and she is their coordinating chairperson.

They also formed a Sacco group called Kyoga Constituency fishermen Sacco group.

In 2021 the Emyooga initiative advanced Shs30 million to the boat the group which members can access for their fishing business initiative.

Last year more Shs20 million was given to the group. This money is advanced to group members which is refundable in four years’ time with 8% interest.

However the Sacco members are given loans of Shs100, 000 - Shs200, 000 which is payable with 5% interest.

Akello contends the money has helped the fisheries communities at Lake Kyoga because at the association level members are encouraged to save and borrow to advance their businesses.

Fish Trading

Ms Akello explained that her group members are engaged in fish trade where others sell their fish in local markets within Lango Sub region but some members bring their consignments to Kampala to be sold in Busega Market.

Those trading in Kampala deal mainly in selling Tilapia and Nile Perch and in most cases they conduct consignments twice a week.

They purchase 2-5 kg of Nile Perch at the landing site in L Kyoga at Shs9, 000 and it is sold at Shs11, 000 while Nile perch weighing 5Kg – 10 kg is purchased at Shs11, 000 per kg and sold at Shs13, 500.

Nile Perch weighing 10kg above is purchased at the lake side at Shs13, 000 and sold at Shs15, 000 or more depending on the market rate.

Those dealing in Tilapia purchase 1 kg at Shs6, 600 and it is sold at Shs8, 500.

Boat owners do trade in different sizes of fish where they are restricted to sell fish to local communities not exceeding 20kg.

Most of the boat owners do not only deal in fish farming and trading but have established feed processing initiatives where they process poultry meals out of a mixture of materials namely mukene, maize bran, rice husks and soy bean cake among others.

Some boat owners also keep poultry which they feed using the processed feed mills while others sell them to fellow farmers.

Challenges

The Chief Executive Officer of Hope Revival Agency for Rural Development (HORARD) Mr Isaac Olua Ojok who happens to be one of the boat owners dealing in fish farming on Lake Kyoga highlights challenges in the fishing farming value chain.

He explains that fishing activities on Lake Kyoga and other lakes is irregular because the fish protection unit is so strict.

While conducting their enforcement, they may decide that fishermen should stop fishing for a specified period which must be abided to.

Other challenges include nets getting old and sometimes boats getting stolen.

In as far as financial services are concerned sometimes funding from banks is so sceptical due to instability in the sector.

There are climate change challenges especially when there is flooding. This causes destruction of fishing facilities at the landing site leading to fishing activities getting stalled.

There is the challenge of Fishermen from the Democratic Republic of Congo coming in big numbers to fish on the lake causing stiff competition with Ugandan fishermen.

Another challenge is fishermen using nets which are not recommended thereby fishing undersized fish which is not fit to be traded.

Those drying fish face difficulties in drying their fish which is salted during rainy season and some lack drying facilities.

Recommendations

He recommends that fishermen to work in groups and follow self-regulations as well as share information about the fish value chain.

Fishermen to attend sensitization meetings in order to get solutions from other landing sites and learn how they are doing it differently.