JKUAT researchers get Sh31m grant to boost production of ‘Omena’
A team of researchers from a local public university beat their counter parts who are members of the East African Community (EAC) to a scoop a Sh31 million grant to boost production of Omena fish species.
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) researchers beat those from Rwanda and Uganda to bag the grant from the European Union (EU) to implement the project entitled Upgrading of Silver Cyprinid.
Under the project, the economic value of silver cyprinid fish, locally known as Omena is set to be promoted through a two-pronged approach, preventing post-harvest loss and promoting its consumption.
The project is committed to collaborating with locals around the Lake Victoria beaches in order to create solutions that will be adopted and thus ensure sustainability.
Omena is a source of livelihood for more than two million people in terms of employment, income and provision of nutrition. It thereby ranks as the most important fish industry in its contribution to the local and East African regional economy.
Omena fishery is valued at $200 million (Sh23.17 billion against a total Lake Victoria fishery valued at $600 million (Sh69.52 billion), according to a study by Maina Joel Kariuki.
“Omena accounts for 35 per cent of the estimated per capita fish consumption in Kenya,” he says.
The silver cyprinid is a small freshwater fish with a silvery colour and luster that can grow to a maximum length of 9 cm. Also known as the Lake Victoria sardine, in Kenya it is called omena and is widespread throughout the basin of Africa’s largest lake, both on its Kenyan shores and in Uganda and Tanzania.
Indigenous fish
The omena is the only indigenous fish species that has remained abundant in Lake Victoria after the introduction of the Nile perch and tilapia, and its diet consists mainly of zooplankton and insects caught on the surface of the water.
It reproduces throughout the year with two peaks, the first in August and the second in December-January.
Under the local names Dagaa, Omena or Mukene depending on whether the locality is Tanzania, Kenya or Uganda, the silverfish fishing employs over two million people and makes up 72 per cent of the lake’s total landings.
The market demands for the fish is also growing from Zambia, South Sudan, Rwanda, Malawi, DRC, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Mostly as animal feed, but in recent years increasingly for human consumption, which has led to higher demand for processing quality.
