Adilies Limited is a social enterprise transforming African rural communities with sustainable energy.

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January 31, 2024

Lake Victoria: Abandoned Fish Cages Slowly Turning Into ‘Floating Museums’

There has been a decline of wild caught Tilapia in both Lake Victoria and Lake Turkana. Uptake of cage farming in Lake Victoria seems to be a sustainable solution to reduce the stress in the fisheries resources in Lake Victoria.

In 2021, there were an estimated 5,300 fish cages in the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria – according to data from the Kenya Fisheries.

Today, some of these fish cages, dot the waters of Lake Victoria like floating museums – with some owners forced to abandon the projects all together.

Despite the venture promising rich alternative for many fishermen, and fish farmers, cage fish farming in Lake Victoria has continued to be affected by a wide range of challenges like the high cost of production, inadequate supply of quality fish feeds and the theft of fish from the cages.

“The biggest problem is limited funds to efficiently manage these cages,” says Bob Allan, a fisherman in Sori in Nyatike, Migori County.

“There are people who equate fish bred in the cages in the lake, to those bred in the ponds. Some people avoid them, they don’t want to eat them, and so we have to find market outside there, and not locally most of the time,”

With Adili Solar Hubs Limited entry into Lake Victoria we are keen to explore ways we can promote community uptake of fish cages. The CEC Blue economy Homabay county JOHN AGILI has expressed to us the need of empowering the community especially the women through sustainable aquaculture initiatives to boost Tilapia production in the lake. This plugs in well with the Solar powered cold storage and ice making facilities we are developing for post harvest management.

We hope our work in Homabay county drives the fish farmers to revive the fish cages. Many small scale cage fish farmers are asking for financial and technical support from the leadership of counties bodering the lake, like Busia, Migori, Kisumu, Siaya and Homa Ba and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.

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Lake Victoria: Abandoned Fish Cages Slowly Turning Into ‘Floating Museums’