By KALOBWE BWALYA
FISH farmers in Muchinga who have made terrible losses out of the aquaculture loans they procured from CEEC as a result of being given the wrong species of fish which died, have appealed to the state to cancel their loans, saying the fault was with authorities.
Most of the fish died because of adverse weather conditions in Muchinga.
One of the beneficiaries, Ms Chilufya Kapwepwe explained that the programme had not being successful because the farmers were given the wrong species of fish not recommended for the province by the Ministry of Fisheries.
In an interview, Ms Kapwepwe said aquaculture farmers in Muchinga Province have been growing Macrocha fingerings but officers from CEEC this time around gave them the wrong species.
She said the Macrocha matures within six months, but the species they were given were still small, ten months after being gotten and that they were dying in large numbers.
“So after inquiring, that’s when we found out that we were actually given the wrong species,” Ms Kapwepwe said.
She has appealed to the government to consider cancelling the loans as the fault was with CEEC which was administering the aquaculture programme on behalf of the state.
Ms Kapwepwe also said that farmers can no longer manage to grow fish because the feed was also becoming expensive.
She said farmers have complained at the slow growth rate of the fish and lack of feed to continue feeding them and have felt cheated that the ministry of Fisheries were not honest with them.
She said the fish industry in Zambia was a good move, but the challenge is that the fish which was recommended to grow didn’t grow on time and leading farmers to fail to service their loans.
She added that they have been faced with challenges on how to grow the fish because the ministry of Fisheries did not do their work accordingly.
Ms Kapwepwe wants to meet with the CEEC to see how best they can be helped by being given more time to settle the loans.
