The government has been urged to address the shortage of affordable feeds and fingerlings to attract private sector to commercials fish farming.

Though the government expects over Rwf18 billion investment in cage fish farming value chain over the next five years, under its Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Project (FADP), the investors are still sceptical, citing high overhead costs, which they say make fish farming unprofitable.

The government also plans to invest Rwf6 billion to attract private sector to invest in commercial fish farming in the country.

“FADP seeks to turn the challenges of lack of quality and fish feeds into business opportunities for private sector including commercial hatcheries and local fish feed mills,” a final report for preparation of a feasibility study on the development of aquaculture and fisheries project in Rwanda recommends.

READ: Rwanda seeks Rwf5.775 billion to boost fish production

The project seeks to establishment of 6,584 cages on all suitable water bodies with Lake Kivu having the largest number. Besides, at least 10,000 tonnes of fish will be produced in tanks.

The report prepared for the Rwanda Agriculture Board produced in Match, comes when there is also a high number of fish farmers are falling out of business yet a well-developed fish farming is seen as the best to reduce pressure to boost production.

Rwanda’s target is to boost production from the current 24,000 annually to 130,000 tonnes annually before 2020. This volume is required to support the growing local and export markets.

But due to the shortage of fish on the market, the country is net fish importer with latest trade data from the government indicating that Rwanda imports 36,000 tonnes of fish annually. This is exerting pressure on foreign reserves and also partly contributing to a widening trade balance.

The aquaculture farmers said the high cost of feed is discouraging many of them as they spend over 60 per cent of their capital on feeds.

“For a fish farmer to be profitable, fisheries officials say the feed cost should not exceed 20 per cent of the farm-gate value of the product,” a farmer said.

Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) attributes low quality of feed on feed makers using poor ingredients and lack of knowledge in feeds formulation.

On the shortage of fingerlings, FAO told the government to run Kigembe Fisheries Station that is producing fingerlings to be managed like a business venture. This shows the government-run facility is not operating at full capacity due to inefficiency causing shortage of fingerlings.

Fish farmers are forced to import the fingerlings from neighbouring countries, resulting in high mortality rates.

The Agriculture and Animal Resources Minister Dr Geraldine Mukeshimana acknowledged the challenges in promotion of aquaculture but said they are being addressed.

“To make animal feeds affordable, the government scrapped the 18 per cent VAT on processed feed,” said Dr Mukeshimana.

Exempting locally manufactured animal feeds from VAT is expected to reduce the price of animal feeds in the domestic market and encourage farmers to buy the factor- made quality feeds to improve productivity of their cages.