Fish farming plan to earn income for labourers‘ wives

AN INNOVATIVE project has been launched to farm fish in the Karoo, using existing reservoirs and dams – and thousands of unemployed women.

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.