Fishery is a major economic activity in Busia, thanks to Lake Victoria which supports a huge population of fish including Nile Perch, Tilapia and Omena.
Busia also introduced emerging alternative fish culture techniques, such as aquaculture that include open water Cage culture, Land-based ponds/aquaculture parks and backyard ponds and the Recirculatory Aquaculture System to boost the industry.
Under this farming enterprise, Busia County Beach Management Unit (BMU) Network with the support from Busia County Government initiated an educational program dubbed Beach Management Scholarship.
In the year 2020, the program supported 214 pupils transitioning to Form one. In 2021, a further 240 pupils joining Form-one were supported by the program. This brings the total number of students supported from Budalangi and Funyula sub-counties to 454.
Margret Akumu, mother to one of the student beneficiaries said that prior to this initiative she had challenges raising school fees for her child, since she’s a small trader selling Omena and sometimes the waters are so unpredictable that sometimes she ends up having nothing to sell yet she has many children to take care of.
Akumu noted that this program has saved her a big deal since she can now see her child through secondary school without much worry about the student being sent home for school fees.
Her sentiments were echoed by Chrispinus Amukoye, a student at St. Benedicts Budalangi high school, who posted quality grades in school thanks to the introduction of cage fish harvest at Mulukoba beach in Bunyala Sub County.
Over 454 students have been supported from the program to the tune of Ksh.7, 000. The total disbursed fees totaling Ksh.4, 676,000.
The County Government through Kenya Climate-Smart Agriculture Project revived Wakhungu hatchery to produce quality fingerlings in an effort to ensure the supply of quality and affordable fish fingerlings to fish farmers.
To this end, the County has fully functioning fish hatcheries in Wakhungu and its satellite nursery in Okerebwa with a production capacity of 1.5million fingerlings annually which are readily available to farmers at a subsidized fee. Their good quality has guaranteed yields to farmers.
Through the directorate of fisheries, established aquaculture production parks were established in the Sub Counties of Butula, Samia and Teso South.
