Farmers want cooler

 FISH farmers in Mumeng, Morobe, are calling on Bulolo MP Sam Basil and the National Fisheries Authority to buy them a cooler so they can store their produce. 

Mumeng Inland Fish Farming Association (MIFFA) secretary Geoff Aron last Thursday said many knew fish farming but they did not have a cooler.

MIFFA has about 500 members, most of them villagers, who resorted to raising fish instead of animals. 

“We want to expand our fish farms but we do not have proper markets and a cooler to store the fish,” Aron said.

He said the farmers needed pipes, cement, pipe-fittings and wires to build proper fish-ponds.

He said some of their ponds were drying out because water was escaping and other ponds in lowland areas were washed away by floodwaters when it rained. “On behalf of the Mumeng fish farmers, I would like to thank NFA for selecting six of our members to qualify for some funds to assist them expand their projects,” Aron said.

Fish farmer Kevi Lini said he had dug seven ponds but because he did not have money and material to build the pond, he had to wait for assistance.

The 68-year-old said he was passionate about fish farming because it did not require much work after the pond was made and that fish could be raised in short time.

“You just feed them and harvest them for selling or eating once they  grow big,” he said.

Lini said Basil gave them fingerlings in 2010 to breed but no further assistance was forthcoming.

Lini said he looked after super talapias and rainbow fish.