Fish farmers groan under N100b loss, warn of more job cuts
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Fish farmers have lamented the loss of more than N100 billion due to flooding, rising cost of fish feeds, and unstable power supply, saying the continued neglect of the sector may worsen job cuts, citing the case of Akwa Ibom.
Akwa Ibom Fisheries Association (AIFA) President Okon Amah said even before the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, it was already very difficult to do fish farming in Nigeria in the face of insecurity, irregular power supply, increase in the cost of feeds, and other farming inputs.
He lamented many fish farms have closed down and thousands of jobs are currently at risk as the sector keeps on dwindling.
“The pandemic made it worse and then came the flood, fish farmers lost over 100billion naira to the ravaging flood. Yet we get nothing from the government to cushion the effects,” Amah said in a statement.
“Fish farming over the years has been a source of employment. For instance, the Uteh cluster I visited in Benin has over 800 fish farmers with double of that as workers, excluding the indirect jobs it has provided within that region put at 4,000.
“That’s just a cluster among many others scattered across the country. Imagine if such close down, that’s an addition to the existing problem of high unemployment rate in Nigeria.
“Fish farmers have been providing basic amenities like power, road, water, etc for themselves and we are tired. We now have to contend with the ever increasing cost of production, especially fish feeds. This is worrisome considering that everyone eats fish in Nigeria and beyond.”
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Roadmap for food security excludes fish farming
“Recently, the roadmap for food security was released at the United Nation Food Summit in Italy by the ministry of agriculture, and surprisingly aquaculture and fisheries were missing,” Amah added, according to Vanguard.
“Does it mean that the federal government has no single plan for an industry generating billions for other countries? Does it mean that we have no agenda for the blue economy?
“We are tired of the politics of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture that usually excludes aquaculture and fisheries from their immediate attention. This needs a priority otherwise the adverse effects are going to be alarming.”
Fisheries Cooperatives of Nigeria (FCN) Executive Secretary Oladele Robinson added fish farming and actual fishing sectors generate more than five million direct jobs and another 15 million indirect jobs through processors, sellers, and others in the value chain.
Robinson said FCN does not understand why the government neglects such a sector, noting it is not captured in the recently released Federal Government Fishery agenda.
He lamented the Federal Department of Fisheries has not helped to push the case of fish farming.