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JASMINE SHAMWEPU
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has promised the government of Tanzania to prolong the implementation of the FISH4ACP project designed to help unlock the potential of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific, thus putting the country at the forefront of progress within the global activities.
According to the Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Abdalah Ulega the five-year FISH4ACP involving 12 African, Caribbean and Pacific states (OACP) financed by the European Union (EU) and the Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented by FAO was approaching to the end since its take off in 2021.
Recently, I travelled to Italy and met with FAO executive chief leaders of the project, they promised and assured me to prolong the implementation of the project
Ulega without mentioning the period extended.
The minister for fisheries and livestock announced when he declared to set free the 3-long months’ suspension for the Lake Tanganyika fisheries in August 25 this year putting emphasis in installation of more appropriate technology including solar tent drying, to protect loss of post-harvest and increasing quality and quantity products.
In an effort to implement the Project activities successfully, gender issues are prioritized after the study revealing challenges in gender constraints and opportunities especially the reasons for low participation of women and girls in the value chain project implementation. “I want to see increased participation of women and young people in fishing, processing, transportation and all other value chain sections,” said Ulega.
He expressed thanks for mutual cooperation during the burned fishing days making room for fish breeding and increasing quality and quantity in fish products.
The government reopened fishing activities in Lake Tanganyika following a three-month ban. Abdallah Ulega, the Livestock and Fisheries minister, officiated at the launch on August 25, at the Katonga landing site in Kigoma Ujiji municipality, explaining that the fishing ban from May 15 to August 25, was intended to protect and revitalize the lake’s fish resources. The temporary suspension provided room for fish to breed and grow, in order to make catches more substantial and for a while, benefit a wide range of people living on fishing or depending on such income generating activities.
The ban according to the government was a decision taken in accord with a regional agreement among member states of the Lake Tanganyika Authority (LTA), to ensure the sustainable management of fishing in the lake and its basin.
Meanwhile, the Senior Project Officer of FAO-Tanzania Hashim Muumin said that after the study conducted around the Lake Tanganyika including the regions of Kigoma, Rukwa and Katavi special training have been organized to empower women in organizations on how to form economic groups, human rights, leadership and communication, and awareness raising on gender equity and women’s rights.
We have installed the billboards all over the landing beaches and the Lake Tanganyika is connected through improved road to main urban centers in Tanzania with more external opportunities including availability of perch in Rukwa, availability of labour to work in the value chain, increased access to electricity for cold chain and increased demand for convenience foods prepared fish products.
More opportunities include increasing and unmet demand for value chain products, especially in high-value markets in Tanzania urban centers and neighboring countries as well as premiums paid for higher quality products.
FISH4ACP was designed to help unlock the potential of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific, Tanzania’s sardine, sprat and perch value chain being artisanal in nature, thus putting the country at the forefront of progress within the global activities.
According to Muumin, FISH4ACP is a five-year project involving 12 African, Caribbean and Pacific states (OACP) financed by the European Union (EU) and the Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), implemented by FAO.
The project uses value chain analysis (VCA) to identify and support value chain upgrading and development in capture fisheries and aquaculture,” said Muumin adding that the project is implemented under the long term strategic plan (10-YEAR) undertaken in partnership with stakeholders including the government of Tanzania and Nature Conservation.
The Lake Tanganyika sprat, sardine and perch value chain in Tanzania is one of the 12 value chains competitively selected for program implementation. FISH4ACP was launched in the country in October 2020.
Its implementation a year later was expected to reach its ending period next December this year. According to FAO Senior Officer in Tanzania the value chain analysis, possible upgrading strategy and a detailed project plan was assessed in 2021 with the main project to be implemented in 2022 – 2024.
Earlier, a validation workshop with value chain stakeholders was organized on August 23-24, 2021 to validate the preliminary findings of the analysis and to initiate the development of a vision and core strategic options for the value chain upgrading.
The Project has conducted more training including enumerators scattered all over the landing beaches to collect data on fishing.
The training of enumerators including beach management units (BMU) officers was part of strategies to collect information useful for the fishery industry development by establishing accessed data base of statistics on population around the lake, fishery men and women, gears used, rates of fish catch, size of fish, weight and type of species available among other necessary information to be collected.
Bertina Francis Tito, resident of Kibirizi and fish processor, agrees that appropriate technology introduced by FISH4ACP has tremendous contribution to sustainable fishing.
The introduction of modern fishing gears and solar tent drying methods has contributed to sustainable development due to adequate access to the market in time, “Short time spent in catching, transportation from deep water to the market as well as access to cold-rooms contribute extensively to the end of post-harvest loss,” adds Bertina Tito.
Team Europe, in co-operation with FAO, is stepping up its support for fisheries and aquaculture in the ACP region. The Fish4ACP program is scaling up investments in 12 aquatic food value chains in 12 ACP countries. The main objective is to increase their sustainability.
By scaling up these investments, the program seeks to promote the well-being of ecosystems and local populations, fostering sustainable development and inclusive economic growth. It is co-financed by the EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with a total contribution of 47.5M euros from 2020-2026, and implemented by FAO.
It attempts to create an enabling environment, promote effective value chain management and trigger a positive spiral of best practices that will catalyze an aquatic food systems transformation.
The project also improves processing infrastructure and enhancing empowerment, inclusiveness and equity for coastal communities. Through the established partnerships in each supported value chain, Fish4ACP is empowering value chains small-scale actors, focusing on small and medium-sized businesses.
According to FAO Tanzania, through the Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships that have been established in each value chain, the Fish4ACP project has already delivered in-depth value chain analysis and action plans for increasing the sustainability of the 12 value chains.
Actions are set to deliver on all aspects of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) including gender equality. As examples of the Fish4ACP’s support, in Tanzania where the fishing sector employs about 15,000 people of which most are women, Fish4ACP will increase national production and employment in the value chain as well as improving the environmental impact by reducing harvest pressure on production while formulating, adopting and enforcing suitable management plans and control measures, at the same time assuring the hygiene and sanitary quality of the value chain products.
The project also improves processing infrastructure and enhancing empowerment, inclusiveness and equity for communities around the Lake Tanganyika in the Regions of Katavi, Rukwa and Kigoma. Through the established partnerships in each supported value chain, Fish4ACP is empowering value chains small-scale actors, focusing on small and medium-sized businesses.
There is a particular emphasis on women and young people. They are empowered through varied trainings including, entrepreneurship and business management. Also they are linked with financial institutions to access financial resource like soft loans and subsidies. “The implementation of the upgrading strategies across all participating groups is yielding a wealth of good practices and valuable lessons,” explains Hashim Muumin during an exclusive interview with media practitioners in Kigoma.
To showcase these achievements, Fish4ACP is organizing a Blue Food Forum2 in Tanzania this September. The Forum will play a crucial role in identifying successful practices, key lessons learned, and opportunities for scaling and expansion.
This event will serve as a platform to explore resource and investment opportunities within the participating countries and the broader donor community. Not only that, Fish4ACP will benefit other aquatic food value chain development initiatives. Zena Masoud from Katonga Beach appreciates the value and roles played by FISH4ACP to enhance poor communities around the Lake Tanganyika.
I am one out of hundreds of beneficiaries, I was trained the best methods of drying small fishes using a solar tent,” she explains that the project enabled her to receive training in modern fish processing, I was given the three advanced cold containers and received training from facilitators from the University of Dar es Salaam providing business management and financial administration.
I was sponsored to participate in field study tours around the Lake Victoria,” adds Zena Masoud, “for the first time in my life I opened a bank account. However, Zena cautioned about the alarming diseases related to Hepatitis B she thinks may arise due to introduced fishing gears around Lake Tanganyika and calls for immediate investigation by health ministry and research institutions.
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