FAO believes that households affected by insurgency can earn decent income from fish farming.

Maiduguri - The armed insurgency in the northeast has resulted in the disruption of fishing livelihoods, an important source of food and income, especially for households dependent on the Lake Chad, a large and shallow lake spanning Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria’s Borno State. The crisis has resulted in decreased access to fishing grounds for fisherfolk due to military activities and volatility in the communities bordering the lake. For households affected by the insurgency, on April 2, 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations launched the first in a series of fish farming clusters across Borno, the worst affected state in northeast Nigeria.

An initial five fish clusters, including 50 individuals, received fish farming kits in Monguno and Jere local government areas in Borno under a European Union Trust Fund financed project to restore agriculture-based livelihoods in the State. Clusters received fish farming starter kits including a fish rearing tank, fish feed, juveniles, water pumps and  other accessories to enable immediate fish production. All groups received training on good fish farming practices, to boost production and sustainability over time.

‘For households affected by the insurgency, especially those formerly engaged in fishing, FAO believes that fish farming will help them to earn more, improve their income and become independent of food assistance,’ said FAO Representative in Nigeria, Suffyan Koroma at the launch of the clusters in Jere, a few kilometres outside of the Borno State capital on Tuesday. 

In 2019, FAO plans to engage 200 male headed households in fish farming in 2019, and train and equip a further 100 female headed houses in fish processing and marketing within the State. 

FAO’s Aquaculture programme in Monguno and Jere is which is part of a larger European Union Trust Fund programme to assist close to 100 000 households in Borno to restore their livelihoods in agriculture – farming, livestock, fish production and agribusiness -  between 2018 and 2021.

Patrina Pink

FAO Maiduguri Sub-Office 

Borno State, Nigeria

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.fao.org