Fish yields in Kibaki stimulus ponds drop 40pc in two years

What you need to know:

Production of fish from the ponds has dropped to 14,952 tonnes from a peak of 24, 096 in 2014.
State officials have blamed the county governments for paying little attention to the fish farms project.
Agriculture is a devolved function and governors took charge of the fish ponds after the 2013 election.

Fish production from the ponds developed under former President Mwai Kibaki’s economic stimulus plan has dropped 40 per cent over the past two years.

Official data indicate that production of fish from the ponds has dropped to 14,952 tonnes from a peak of 24, 096 in 2014.

State officials have blamed the county governments for paying little attention to the fish farms project—launched in 2008 to boost annual production to above 20,000 tonnes in the short term and 100,000 tonnes after five to 10 years.

Agriculture is a devolved function and governors took charge of the fish ponds after the 2013 election.

The national government, under the current constitution, has been left with the mandate of research and policy development, with functions such as extension services having been devolved.

“The quantity of fish landed from fish farming dropped by 19.8 per cent from 18.7 thousand tonnes in 2015 to 15.0 thousand tonnes in 2016,” official data say.

The Fish Farming Enterprise Productivity Programme was an initiative by the Kibaki regime to expand economic opportunities in rural areas in a bid to create jobs and improve nutrition.