The masterminds behind the project say that, besides creating jobs for these women, and a rich new revenue stream for the farmers, the project will also produce cheap, fresh nutrition for poor locals.
Funded by the European Union and developed against the global backdrop of plummeting wild marine fish stocks, the Camdeboo Satellite Aquaculture Project could become a major alternative fish resource for the country if rolled out as envisaged, they say.
The fish that the project is focusing on is Tilapia mossambicus. Jokingly dubbed “Karoo perlemoen”, it is in fact the Nguni cow of the aquaculture industry: indigenous, robust, disease-free, vegetarian and excellent-tasting.
Extolling these virtues at Friday‘s launch event at a Graaff- Reinet smallholding, the co- founder of the project, Stellenbosch-based aquaculturist Glen Thomas, said the Karoo‘s plentiful sun was what had sparked the idea for the project.
“You need warmth to farm this fish – and we have a lot of sun here, of course, even in winter.” And ironically, it is the dryness of the Karoo that produced the opportunity for the project, he noted.
Fish farming plan to earn income for labourers wives
SOUTH AFRICA - An innovative project has been launched to farm fish in the Karoo, using existing reservoirs and dams and thousands of unemployed women.