The problem

Wild fish stocks in western Kenya are dwindling. Lake Victoria is suffering from overfishing, and tilapia, the most popular freshwater fish in Kenya, is becoming scarce. Farm Africa is promoting fish production in freshwater ponds to help protect Lake Victoria’s strained resources and provide a growing population with a sustainable source of fish.

Farm Africa has been working in aquaculture since 2011, when we set up a network of aqua shops to help disseminate high quality equipment, feed and training for fish farmers.

We believe that aquaculture has the potential to increase employment, boost incomes and provide families with an affordable source of protein. But farmers and traders need support and investment if fish farming is to become a competitive industry.

What are we doing?

We’re working directly with farmers, suppliers and traders to improve the production and marketing of fish. We’re doing this by:

• Providing training for fish farmers and helping them to access high-value markets to increase their incomes
• Supporting the suppliers of feed and fingerlings (young fish) to improve the quality of their produce and help them to sell to farmers
• Working with traders to increase their access to and capacity to sell larger volumes of farmed fish
• Carrying out an educational campaign to show the benefits of farmed fish over wild-caught fish
• Helping fish farmers to organise themselves into trade associations so that the industry can thrive

The project builds upon Farm Africa's history of working with the Kenyan aquaculture sector. Farm Africa's aqua shops project ran from 2011-2015, setting up a network of shops which continue to provide an invaluable source of support for Kenya's new fish farmers.

The following video outlines some of the tips we give on how to feed fish so as to minimise waste and maximise profit:

This presentation summarises KMAP's baseline study providing an overview of the data which will be used to measure the effectiveness of the programme's interventions.

Who are we working with?

This project is funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Nairobi. We’re leading a consortium of partners, including Netherlands Senior Experts (PUM),the BoP Innovation Center, Larive International B.V. the World Fish Center (WFC), and the Centre for Development Innovation (CDI).