FAO distributes fish food to Bangui farmers

Some 400 fish farmers in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, have received 30 mt of fish feed from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an official told IRIN on Wednesday.

The feed distribution would enable the farmers to recover from a disruption of their activities following a failed coup attempt in May 2001, the FAO consultant for assistance to farmers, Nicolas Bokossi, said.

He said FAO imported the feed - made from cotton remnants - from Chad because the CAR did not produce cotton in the last season due to war and insecurity. It was distributed to 21 fish farming cooperatives in Bangui's sixth and seventh districts.

The two districts, together with those in the east and south of Bangui, were adversely affected by former President Andre Kolingba’s unsuccessful coup against President Ange-Felix Patasse. In the violence that ensued after the coup attempt, fish farmers fled their homes and many fish pools were hit by rockets.

The distribution of feed was part of a larger FAO project to revamp all the farming sectors in the country, including agriculture, breeding, fishing and fish farming.

In October, FAO gave fish farmers and fishermen materials to make nets and hooks. The FAO has also distributed pig sires and is due to distribute rabbit and chick sires.

FAO is targeting 7,900 farmers for the assistance project set to cost US $322,000 and to last until November 2004, Bokossi said.