Fiona Aciro Birungi, one of the best farmers in the 2023 competition, has launched the construction of a fish hatchery with a target to produce 800,000 fingerlings to boost and promote fish farming in the greater northern region.
Aciro is the chief executive officer of Dewilos Fish Farm located on the Lira-Kampala road in Amuca, Lira city (Western division). It was founded in 2019 with a single pond but by 2022, it had grown to 21 ponds with over 60,000 fish (tilapia and catfish).
Aciro said previously, they would hatch fingerlings in a bedroom since they did not have a hatchery section, but now, the farm is establishing its hatchery unit after receiving an award from Vision Group.
“Previously, we were having fingerlings and were selling them but we did not have a hatchery. We would hatch them in our home and when they were ready to go to a nursery bed, we would bring them to our pond,” Aciro said.
She said: “Now, we want to hatch them [fingerlings] from the farm. This is happening because we were successful in the farmers competition and were supported with a token of appreciation.”
Aciro said currently, the farm has 10 tarpaulin ponds as an addition to the 21 existing ponds, all thanks to a weeklong tour in the Netherlands.
She said last month, they made sales and earned sh40m which they added to the Vision Group prize to enable them start the project.
“We expect to raise over 800,000 fingerlings annually and we want to supply fish to farmers in Lango, West Nile, Karamoja, Teso and Acholi sub-regions,” Aciro said.
“What I learned from the Netherlands is exactly what we are implementing now, like the tarpaulin ponds. We discovered people using a very small piece of land to grow fish using tarpaulin,” she said.
“The trip was good because there were a lot of lessons and notes taken which we are implementing now,” Aciro said.
‘Embrace agribusiness’
Presiding over the breaking of the ground ceremony, Alice Akello, the commissioner in charge of resident district commissioners in the northern region, cautioned the current young generation against “wanting free things”.
She said President Yoweri Museveni has been preaching about wealth creation but people do not listen, hence end up in the prolonged search for jobs.
“We have Dewilos farm here which employs over 30 people in just a short time and when you find out the amount of money they are getting from fish sales, you will wonder why you should look for an office job. Money is not in offices because young people are crying for jobs everywhere. When you give them the job, they fail to do it,” Akello said.
She called upon people to embrace farming as a business because there is already a market everywhere in the world.
Inspiration from the Netherlands
Fiona Aciro Birungi, one of the best farmers in the 2023 competition, said she learnt that the government of the Netherlands supports farmers in aspects including funding, creating markets for farmers and making them respectable people.
She called upon the Government to support farmers, especially those who started on their own, so that they build strong communities capable of moving the economy to another level.
LEAD PHOTO CAPTION: Alice Akello (third-left) and some visitors inspect one of the fish ponds in Lira city.
