Khost fish farmers seek govt’s support to improve business

KHOST CITY (Pajhwok): Fish farms owners in southeastern Khost province complain about the lack of attention from government and foreign organizations and say their business is on the verge of collapse.

Syed Anwar, the in-charge of fish farm in the Ismaelkhelo Mandozaio district’s Shadal area, said he made a pond for fish farming on half an acre of area and he received positive outcome.

He added that besides this pond, he had 11 other ponds for fish forming, but they dried up due to the lack of government and foreign organizations support. He asked the government to provide necessary support to him for fish farming.

“Now there is a government, the Agriculture Department is functional if they provide support to us we can provide fish to the entire Khost from this one pond, if we don’t receive support our business will stop.”

Shakirullah, one of the workers of fish farm who collects fishes in a net and transfer them to the other side.

He said people from different areas of Khost visited the fish farm to purchase fresh fish. Up to 30 kilograms of fish are sold daily and one kilogram is sold for 250 afs.

“We are associated with this business from the past four years, it is a good business but if there is opportunity and necessary condition is provided,” he said.

Munir Gul, a fish form owner in the Dab area of Khost City, the provincial capital that he formed the fish form five years ago.

He said from this form he supplied an averge 700 kilograms of fish to the market but added he was disappointed because no authority provided him support regarding technical fish farming.

He said: “We want the government to support us by providing us with necessary training, fish forming generated good result in Khost some forms that are on the verge of collapse lacked professional fish forming.”

Sikandar, the resident of Ismaelkhelo Mandozaio district told Pajhwok Afghan News he went to fish form two or three times in a week and purchased fish for eating.

He added comparing to imported fish, the meat of Khost fish was sweet and was fresh.

“Government should pay attention to the development of fish forms in the country besides importing fish from foreign countries, the meat of Khost fish was sweet and our friends liked it the most.”

Dr. Roshan, a senior official of the Agriculture Department, said total 40 fish forms were registered with the agriculture department out of which 33 were functional and the remaining seven had stopped.

The reason why some fish form dried up was the lack of professional individuals and these forms were constructed below the required standard.

“Letters had been written to different organization and we demanded support in the area of fish forming, we asked for food and necessary equipment for fish forming. This year the DAI organization provided each form owner with 945 kilograms of fish food,” he said.

Dr. Roshan said forms that has more water produce good result and a form that lacked water faced closure.

He said at least two meter water should be available for fishes and less two metre will not help fishes to grow.

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