Mozambique: President launches small scale aquaculture project

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Mozambique: President launches small scale aquaculture project

3:45 CAT | 28 May 2021

Screen grab: STV

President Filipe Nyusi has just launched the Small Scale Aquaculture Development Project (PRODAPE), in the village of Chitima, Cahora Bassa district, Tete province.

Before the launch, the president visited the aquaculture fair, where he heard explanations about the production of fish, shrimp and animal feed from producers from all provinces in the country.

Products from various research institutions and from the Tilápia, Pende and Kapenta fish production and conservation chain are on display at the fair.

PRODAPE is estimated at around US $ 50 million and aims to move from the current 3 thousand tons of fish raised in captivity to more than 24 tons per year, in the near future.

“This initiative fits in perfectly with our wishes, because it involves disadvantaged families, but production needs to be greater,” said the President , who added that PRODAPE will change the Government’s aquaculture approach in the current five-year period.

In an initial phase, PRODAPE will be implemented in 23 districts in the provinces of Tete, Cabo Delgado, Niassa, Zambézia, Manica and Sofala.

“We learned from SUSTENTA that it is necessary to start small to then grow and not to start big to then fall”, clarified President Nyusi as to the national scope of the project at the moment.

Nyusi wants PRODAPE to be oriented to a commercial and viable aquaculture, hence the appeal: “don’t complicate it, nurture the producers,” urged the President.

According to government estimates, PRODAPE will be able to create 17,000 jobs (direct and indirect) and a vast value chain: access routes will be opened, there will be an extension of the electricity grid, new markets, processing areas, agricultural and tourism development .

A vast value chain that Filipe Nyusi demands to be “zoned” so as not to generate conflict.

For the producers, there remains the challenge of guaranteeing the quality required to explore, not only the domestic market, but also the external one.

Within the scope of the government’s “One District, One Hospital” initiative, President Nyusi , still today inaugurates the Chingodzi Health Centre, in Tete province.

In Mutarara tomorrow, the president will lay the first stone in the reconstruction of the Dona Ana/Vila-Nova da Fronteira railway line to the Malawi border, disused since 1986.

The head of state is accompanied on his visit by the ministers of the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries, Augusta Maita; of Transport and Communications, Janfar Abdulai; the CEO of Railways and Ports of Mozambique, Miguel Matabel; and members of staff of the Presidency and other state institutions.

Source: Noticias / O País