New and Sustainable Agriculture Methods for Lake Victoria

It might not be clear why a fish pond project should take root in a region surrounding the great Lake Victoria. After all, as the second largest freshwater lake in the world, it should be able to support the fish and the people that depend on its resources. But the fact that fish farming is fast expanding here highlights a worrying trend – that the fish population in Lake Victoria has been in steady decline and the quality of what is being caught has been going down too, jeopardising the livelihoods of millions. Now villagers are turning to farming to address the shortages, something which would have been inconceivable only a few years ago. International development organisations including World Neighbors and Vi Agroforestry are training villagers on simple, sustainable agricultural practices as well as water-harvesting techniques. The financial diary tool is a joint effort between the University of Nairobi, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands and CCAFS – a research programme on climate change, agriculture and food security. This study is looking at the financial data of 122 households in the Nyando Basin, including Kisumu County.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN