Story from Action for Sustainable Development (ASUD)

Written by Bahat Kapito

Allam Khongowale comes from Kaviwanga Village, Traditional Authority Kachulu in Rumphi district. He is a member of Mphachi Fish Farming Group.  He was forced to start fish farming due to poverty and hunger in the year 2000. However, his  dream of living a respectable  livelihood  could not be be realized because he has been keeping mixed  sex fish this resulted in prolific breeding making it unbearable for him to efficiently feed his fish in addition to pond fertilization, he  explains “I have been rearing mixed sex Tilapia , this made my ponds to be overpopulated increasing the cost for feed and competition for feed among the fish resulting in stunted growth  and  I had no idea on how I control overpopulation of fish in my ponds” . ASUD came to his rescue  when he was trained in intermittent harvesting  technology using fish traps through a training organized by AVCP, this has   helped him to improve his productivity and has also increased access to regular consumption of fish in his family, he narrates, “ Labour costs have been significantly reduced as harvesting fish using a harvesting nets I had to employ some people this used to reduce my income and the nutritional status of my family has improved as we regulary consume small fish while harvesting larger table size fish at the end of each culture