Kampala — SMALL-SCALE fish farmers in northern Uganda have received sh1.15b to boost their activities.

The funds will be used to produce and distribute fast-growing male tilapia fry and fingerlings to outgrowers across the country.

The Livelihood Enterprise for Agriculture Development (LEAD) programme through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will contribute sh252,950,000.

The Source of the Nile Fish Farm (U) Ltd (SON), a Jinja-based tilapia producing organisation, will contribute sh897,687,000.

Dr. Shivaun Leonard, the SON general manager, said they would also increase production of floating fish feed and train producer organisations in fish husbandry to more effectively utilise pond and cage production systems for fish farming.

She said during the course of the one-year grant, at least 250 fish farmers would receive high-quality fish food and training that will increase their production by 67%.

Also tilapia fry production at SON will increase by 400% and 400 local farmers will provide SON with soya and maize for fish food.

Susan Corning, the managing director of LEAD, during the signing of a collaboration agreement with SON at their offices in Kampala, said her organisation aims at increasing agricultural productivity.

Corning said during five years, they have boosted trade capacity and competitiveness through effective public-partnerships with Uganda and international non-governmental organisations, business service providers and agri-businesses.

She said with $120m (sh259.2b) earned from fish exports per annum, fish production had become Uganda's second largest export.

Corning said when SON improves production of the feeds, more farmers would be attracted to fish farming since yields from Lake Victoria had dropped dramatically over the years.

Peter Wathum, the LEAD monitoring and evaluation manager, said the collaboration would help them achieve their objective of reaching out to 600,000 farming households.

"At the end of the programme, we hope 150,000 jobs will be created. This arrangement will help us fill the unemployment gap," Wathum said. He added: "The contribution SON has injected into the project is a clear indication they don't want the project to fail."

Shivaun said SON hoped to establish contact points in the countryside to enable farmers access the feeds.

She said the produced feeds contain 45% proteins for the small fish, 35% for medium fish and 30% for the large fish.

Leonard said SON has 65 tilapia fish ponds and 30 cages. We have a production capacity of 200 tons of tilapia fish annually though our target is 2,500 tones per year.