So much fishing, so little fortune: What the industry should change

An irony of the fishing industry at the Coast is how there is so much poverty yet they are next to a vast ocean.

Experts blame this on overfishing within a small radius and using traditional means.

“The coastal community has a mine gold just next to them. Unfortunately, the people are still poor because they have not exploited the sea fully,” Prof Charles Ngugi said.

Ngugi holds a PhD in fish biology and aquaculture. He has practised extensively in the field of aquaculture for nearly four decades. He was speaking at a conference that was organised by UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, in conjunction with African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (Afraca).

The two-day conference was convened at Beaumount Resort in Mtwapa on August 11 and 12. It brought together various stakeholders in the fish industry from the coastal counties and across the country. The theme was, 'Financing innovation for sustainable fisheries with the private sector in Kenya'.

Ngugi, a consultant at FAO, lamented that the small fisherfolk from Kwale, Kilifi and Mombasa counties were reeling in poverty due to the use of traditional, outdated technology.

“Most of the fishers from these counties carry out fishing at the shores and the reef,” he said.

“These areas have been overfished and can no longer support commercial fishing. The Kenyan coast’s fishing waters are as far as 200 nautical miles (370 km) deep into the sea. This is where the real deal lies.” 

WHY THEY STRUGGLE

Research by Afraca shows most fishers can’t even go past 10 nautical miles (about 18 km) from the shores due to their ill-equipped fishing gear. As a result, their catch is always limited.

Another striking finding from the research’s report is that most of the coastal fishers avoid borrowing loans from financial institutions. Thomas Essel, the secretary general of Afraca, discouraged the behaviour of shunning financial help, saying it hindered their progress to a large extent.

“The fishers like grants so much but don’t want to take loans. But grants alone cannot make one grow. They are meant to give some sort of a foundation, and then the loans will sustain the growth process,” he said.

“Another sad reality is that the people don’t have an entrepreneurial culture and acumen. They want quick money, and that is why they sell their fish at the seashore. By so doing, they end up selling at a throwaway price.”

The fishing industry at the Coast is done and controlled by a myriad of people. They include boat owners, fishers at sea, fishmongers and fish-buying agencies, among others. All these people are brought together by beach management units (BMUs), which are meant to control the fishing business from a central point. However, even the BMUs can only do so much due to technical incapacity and otherwise.

A good industrial fishing boat goes for around Sh15 million. Raising that money is almost impossible for these fishers

GRUDGE WITH GOVERNMENT

Mercy Mghanga is the chair of Bamburi Beach Management Unit. She is also the head of all the beach management units in Mombasa county. During the conference, she talked passionately about the challenges ailing local fishers and the problems women fishers deal with at the ocean.

“In Mombasa county, there are 14 BMUs. Two others joined recently, bringing the total units to 16,” she said.

“Each unit has two boats given by the county government. So in total, we have 28 boats. However, the total number of members of these units is 3,800. Now tell me, with that big number of us, will those boats really help us?”

Of the 14 units, she said, only half are fully functional. The others are located in places that have been undermined by government projects.

“You bring government projects in our designated landing sites and scuttle our chief economic activity. Where do you expect us to go?” she said.

“For example, when the standard gauge railway was constructed, it hugely affected our fishers together with fishing areas. Several years later, people from elsewhere are benefitting from such projects, while we the local community are sinking deeper into poverty.”

She added that poverty is still the main reason keeping fishers away from taking loans.

“These financial institutions always require collateral before giving a loan. Now, if I don’t have anything worth serving as surety, how can I get a loan? A good number of the fishers don’t even have title deeds to their land,” she said.

“And by the way, a good industrial fishing boat goes for around Sh15 million. Raising that money is almost impossible for these fishers.” 

On women at sea, she said that they are labelled as prostitutes who exchange sex for fish. That, she said, is what made her start an organisation of women in fishing to try and erase the negative reputation and give them confidence while at sea.

SEEKING COLLABORATION

Afraca and FAO tried to demystify the notion that financial institutions are hostile to small-scale fishers. They used Imarika Sacco as an example of the willingness of financiers to support the fishing industry. The sacco has Mtaji loan, which is specifically lent to fishers up to a tune of Sh5 million with a monthly interest rate of 1 per cent.

Such loans, they said, are vital in building capacity in the industry by upgrading their fishing gears, boat engines, freezers among other things.

Mary Gatonye from Faulu Faida microfinance said the government has to educate people more on the blue economy to understand and exploit it better.

“The government is fond of using pompous words such as blue economy, which even people like us find hard to understand,” she said.

“There is a great need for proper education to be done to these local people in a way they can understand what blue economy really means and how they can optimally exploit it sustainably.”

William Chivila a fisher from Mnarani in Kilifi, said he had gained from the conference and would pass the knowledge to colleagues at sea.

“My other 19 colleagues and I have an association in Kilifi, where we are practising mariculture,” he said.

They rear fish such as milkfish, oysters and crabs in ponds, just adjacent to the ocean. The biggest problem they have is getting fingerlings, he said. They are planning to take a loan and buy a boat so they can as well do deep-sea fishing. They will also use the loan to construct fish selling stalls in Kilifi town.

Thomas Essel, the Afraca boss, said, “After the conference, we will carry out a pilot programme, again in conjunction with FAO-Kenya, and see how we can support these fishers from the Coast to achieve their potential.”

Edited by T Jalio