A group of like-minded fish farmers operating under the banner “Abwenzi Cooperative Society Limited” have teamed up and started Cage Aquaculture on Lake Malawi.
The group, based in Malembo, Mangochi District used to produce fish from small fish ponds in the past.
Abwenzi Cooperative Society Limited senior operations manager Emmanuel Mangulenje has told ProjectM in an interview that the group has so far installed 16-diametre cages on the lake, approximately 2.5 kilometres from shore.
He said each cage has a holding capacity of 80,000 fish.
“What inspired us to come up with this initiative is the dwindling fish population on the lake which forced us to improvise, adapt and overcome to maintain profits we used to make in the past from fish farming,” said Mangulenje.
He said the group wrote a proposal and received a matching grant of K220 million from the Malawi Agricultural Commercialization (AGCOM), money which has been used to procure 5 millimetre, 10 millimetre and 15 millimetre nets for cages, 3 boats with 30 horsepower engines for fishing and mobility, divers kits, life jackets and other fishing equipment.
“From this investment, we expect to harvest 24,000 kilogrammes of fish from each cage every seven months, translating into a profit of over K800 million,” added Mangulenje.
Meanwhile, AGCOM National Director Ted Nankhumwa has commended the cooperative for implementing what was presented in its proposal.
“We want cooperatives like these to thrive and as AGCOM we are ready to support them financially as well as technically,” he said.
Agricultural expert Horace Phiri has also commended the cooperative, saying what it is implementing is futuristic.
