With well over a decade of experience in the maritime business sector behind it, a nonprofit in KwaZulu-Natal is now helping unemployed youth set up their own aquaculture and aquaponics farms.
The eThekwini Maritime Cluster (EMC) has been championing the maritime industry in and around Durban since 2009 and focuses mainly on bridging the gap between industrial policy and business.
“We get businesses that are trying to venture into the maritime industry, but they can’t do that without sufficient knowledge and sufficient information. That is our goal as the EMC,” says Ayanda Sikobi, programmes manager for enterprise development and marine manufacturing at EMC.
Through five different divisions, the organisation does small business incubation, graduate placement, assistance with commodities like logistics and stevedoring, work readiness, and water sports engagements. They even create innovation challenges where young people try to resolve problems within the maritime space.
The Youth Aquaculture Project
One of the enterprise development division’s tasks is to upskill unemployed young people in aquaculture and aquaponics. The organisation selects participants from five municipalities in the eThekwini region, helping them form co-operatives and then piloting the projects once they are grouped.
Sikobi says that about 20 participants are currently undergoing training at the Northdene municipal facility.
A field trip is an important part of their training. “We take them to Bloemfontein [to the] China-South Africa Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centre (ATDC). It’s owned by the government, so the training there is free if people are interested in learning more about aquaculture.”
The field training takes place over seven days, with EMC subsidising much of the transport, accommodation and meals. “Bloemfontein is far!” Sikobi laughs.
Participants in the programme receive three rather thorough training sessions at the facility and learn as much as they can about freshwater aquaculture and aquaponics. “You learn everything from sampling your water to how to take care of your stock, feeding them, spawning, the whole reproduction process, how to clear your tanks, how to take care of your fish… It’s a long process.”
Building businesses
Once participants have decided on the aspects of aquaculture on which they will focus, EMC supports them through the piloting process, including trying to secure funding.
The entire programme, built around a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) where participants use tanks that recirculate the farm’s water, spans three years. Teaching a skill as big as aquaculture requires a lot of capital and cannot take place in a short time, says Sikobi, and this is why the training takes so long.
“You can’t capacitate and teach people something in a year. You need time. You need to help them with some business planning, how to construct proposals… You have to assist them with acquiring funding for getting the tankers, the net, to get the greenhouses and, if they want to take things further by venturing into aquaponics as well, then you need to teach them that aspect also. So one year is not enough, but three years are sufficient.”
The challenge of bureaucracy
Through their incubation process, EMC had already helped establish an aquaculture company in Umbumbulu in the eThekwini municipality. The project, run by Themba Mgwaba, entails both aquaculture and aquaponics, and will be the first fully operational aquaculture project the nonprofit has piloted once the compliance process is completed.
Sikobi says that the compliance process for aquaculture projects can be difficult. Parts of the process are unclear, and applicants end up having to communicate with government constantly without really getting anywhere.
“If government could work with small businesses [and] help them with the compliance issues, this can be a very lucrative project.”
Aquaculture is holistic development
For Sikobi, helping people sustain themselves is central to the aims of the aquaculture programmes. Studies done by the United Nations and other aid organisations have shown that fish is the easiest form of protein to obtain.
“By piloting and establishing this project, [we] are essentially assisting people with their own nutrition. And with the population that is forever increasing, [we are] assisting people with manufacturing their own food in the comfort of their own space, instead of having to purchase everything. And they are also creating revenue. [With this project], people are sustaining themselves and contributing towards a healthier lifestyle.”
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