The County Government of Nakuru in collaboration with the National Government has launched a small scale Aquaponics demonstration unit in Njoro Girls High School, Njoro sub-County.

Now, this brings to three the schools that have a robust aquaponics unit for their Young Farmers club running to boost nutrition and a fish-eating culture in schools.

Today’s launch at Njoro Girls High School was led by Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives Chief Administrative Secretary, Anne Nyaga and County Minister for Agriculture, Dr Immaculate Maina.

CAS Nyaga said that the support to students must trickle down to their communities and is to ensure ownership and sustainability at a young age.

She urged the administration to reinvest proceeds from their first success to set up new systems and use the school as a demo site for knowledge transfer.

The fisheries subsector continues to play a big role in Nakuru County with 2020’s annual fish production being estimated at 2,237,481 Kgs valued at Ksh 240,830,737.

Dr Maina said that it was key to ensure students develop an early mindset of how to contribute to the value chain which will in the future lead to self-employment and early identification of gaps as value chain operators.

Currently, the County in partnership with AgriFi has set up three integrated ponds at the Nakuru ATC as demo sites for farmers.

Bahati Girls, Nakuru Girls and Njoro Girls high schools out of 55 schools across the Country in Nakuru are ones with the aquaponics unit set up.

The county has a total of 588 operating ponds with a surface area of 170,191M2 under fish farming and continues to invest in the sector through the distribution of equipment in addition to restocking water bodies in the County.

The young farmers’ clubs and 4k clubs were revived this year on June fourth by President Uhuru Kenyatta.