The 9th Fish Famers’ Symposium and Trade Show was held from 1 to 3 March 2017 in Kampala, Uganda. This year under the topic “Enhancing Profitability and Regional Trade in Aquaculture within East Africa” and officiated by the Minister of Trade, Industry and cooperatives, Honorable Amelia Kyambadde, the event gathered about 230 fisheries and aquaculture stakeholders along the fish value chain including Government officials, Fish farmers, Researchers, Service providers, Fish processors, Policy makers, and Development partners from Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, USA and Uganda.
Parallel exhibitions to the presentations and discussions were run where farmers, researchers and input dealers displayed their products. The symposium was concluded with field tours to Go-fish market outlets in Bugolobi and Muyenga, Tendo Innovation Farm in Garuga, Pearl Aquatics fish farm in Entebbe and the NARO-Aquaculture Research Development Center, Kajjansi of the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute (NAFIRRI).
Pauline Nakyewa of partner NARO National Agricultural Research Organization (Uganda) gave a presentation in group 2 about "Wastewater management and re-use in aquaculture for the Lake Victoria basin" to explain to the audience why our project was born, what its objectives and technologies are and how interested parties can get involved in our activities and help us contribute to a more sustainable and gender-balanced aquaculture.
The Fish Famers’ Symposium and Trade Show is organised every year by WAFICOS (Walimi Fish Cooperative Society), a legally registered fish farmers’ co-operative society under the Uganda Co-operative Alliance (UCA). The primary objective of WAFICOS is to provide a forum through which fish farmers can collectively acquire the essential services and inputs necessary to ascertain the viability of their operations. This includes collective marketing and value addition of farmed fish products. As such the membership of WAFICOS covers a wide spectrum of the sector; grow-out fish farmers, fish seed producers and breeders, trainers, fish feed manufacturers, and processors, input suppliers, trainers and researchers.
