WINDHOEK: Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Sylvia Makgone announced that Government has established eight operational fish farms and aquaculture centres countrywide.

She made this announcement during an update on the nation’s progress on aquaculture activities at the Ministry of information and Communication Technology (MICT)’s Government Information Centre (GIC), here on Monday.

‘To affectively promote the freshwater aquaculture sector, the government through the ministry has established eight operational fish farms and aquaculture centres countrywide. These include the Leonardville Fish Farm in the Omaheke Region, Fonteintjie Fish Farm in the ||Kharas Region, and Onavivi Inland Aquaculture Centre in the Omusati Region amongst others,’ said Makgone.

She added that it is to encourage the public to get involved in aquaculture and create businesses that will ensure the betterment of their livelihoods and which will also promote national development.

‘I urge the Namibian people to take adva
ntage of the services provided by Government and to actively complain through formal procedures in order to hold us accountable and as indicated earlier, our mandate is to promote aquaculture and we will go above and beyond to ensure that our fish farmers and aspiring fish farmers get the much needed support to improve Namibia’s aquaculture sector,’ said Makgone.

Aquaculture is the cultivation of aquatic animals, such as fish or shellfish, or of plants, such as seaweed, in a controlled and sometimes enclosed body of water.

Namibia’s aquaculture has two sub-sectors; freshwater aquaculture and marine aquaculture popularly known as mariculture which most people are involved in, therefore causing the government to take strides toward getting more people to participate in freshwater aquaculture.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency