As part of the world Fisheries Day Celebrations, GIZ – Responsible Fisheries Business Chain Project ( GIZ RFBCP) with funding from Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) supported the 3rd edition of the Jinja E-Fish Festival last Sunday on 14th November 2021.
The festival was a fusion of fun generated from sharing delicious fish, amazing performance from Afrigo Band and Nile Beats aswell a learning and networking experience through exhibitions by key sector players who formed the National Organizing committee for the event.
The Jinja E-Fish Festival also offered a unique way of learning about the resource and promoting sustainable fisheries, through a poster paper competition. GIZ-Responsible Fisheries Business Chain Project supported this competition amongst tertiary institutions.
The objectives of the competition were: I. to engage fisheries students and researchers in Sustainable Artisanal Fisheries, II to raise awareness, understanding and actions to support the contribution and sustainable development of artisanal fisheries to food security and nutrition, poverty eradication and use of natural resources as well as III. explaining and promoting sustainable Nile Perch Fisheries management and its implementation. Tertiary Institutions that were invited included Makerere University, Busitema University , Fisheries training Institute and Kyambogo university.
According to Dr. Juliet Nattabi the head of the scientific review committee, “the students did tremendous work, quality papers were submitted and it was a difficult position coming up with the finalists”. While at the event, Adolf Gerstl, the GIZ-RFBCP team leader informed our team that, that the purpose of the competitions was to motivate further research by the students as a way of supporting the knowledge base for the fisheries sector.
While at the same event, the country director GIZ made remarks that it was such an opportunity for him to understand fisheries in a more detail especially with the tremendous exhibitions where he learnt a lot about the different types of fish in Uganda and fish technologies, but he was also amazed by the different works by different stake holders across the value chain and congratulated the entire team for the preparations.
The awards given to the students included the sumsung tablet to the winner, a sumsung phone to the 1st runners-up and 2 techno phones to the 2nd runners-up. These awards were meant to motivate students to do further research and grow the knowledge base for the fisheries sector.
The Jinja E-Fish festival was organized by GIZ – Responsible Fisheries Business Chain Project (RFBCP) with funding support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) together with: Directorate of Fisheries Resources (DiFR), Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization(LVFO), Uganda Fish Processors and Exporters Association (UFPEA), Federation of Fisheries Organizations of Uganda (FFOU), Katosi Women Development Trust (KWDT), Makerere University Department of Zoology, Entomology and Fisheries Science, Fisheries Training Institute(FTI), National Fisheries Resource Research Institute( NaFIRRI), Sustainable Fisheries Initiative (SFI), Association of Fishers and Lake Users of Uganda (AFALU) and Uganda Fisheries and Fish Conservation Association (UFFCA).
