Malawi: New fish-processing facilities in Madzedze village

06.01.2009

“The facility that ICEIDA has set up in Madzedze village by Lake Malawi, with active participation of local people, could possibly become a model for other such facilities around Lake Malawi, but the future must judge whether it is successful and whether it will be in favour of the fishermen and their families with increased food procurement,” says Stefán Kristmannsson, ICEIDA´s Fisheries Project Manager in Malawi.

According to Stefán, build-up work is completed and recently drying and smoking of fish coming from neighbouring waters started.

The project is a part of a bigger project on small-scale fishery technology development at Lake Malawi which spans five years and started in 2005. “The project is conducted in cooperation with the Department of Fisheries in Malawi and also with poor fishermen in the Nankumba Region by Lake Malawi,” says Stefán and adds that it’s precisely the poor fishermen that should benefit with safer boats and better and more suitable fishing gear to fish at deeper waters.

According to Stefán the project consists of three factors: technology development of fishing gear and boats, fisheries research and training. He says that the training includes workshops for the fishermen and women, build-up of fish-processing facilities and knowledge enhancement among fisheries researchers, to name a few.