When Hon. Jackson K. George Jr. visited a fish pond in the suburb of Liberia’s capital, Wednesday, March 5, he saw a whole new world yet untapped in this country of large rivers and plenty of rainfall and expressed his determination to join the inventor of Garden Fish Farm and establish his own.
Accompanied by this writer and another staff Hon. George was led on a tour of the Garden Fish Farm by its proprietor, Divine Key Anderson at which time the operator lectured on the sequence of scientific procedures through which a sizable amount of fishes eaten in the capital is processed.
Mr. Anderson and his staff demonstrated how he first collects fish eggs then places them in what looks like, or serves as incubators for fishes. Until they developed into a full body-part of a fish, they are considered as fingerlings. Thereafter, they are seen developing gradually and swarming day after day before they move them into another bigger pond.
On the day of Hon. George’s tour Mr. Anderson exhibited large and small tilapia fishes as well as catfishes, some of which are nearing their maximum growth following which they shall be harvested pretty soon.
Anderson’s Kebbah’s compound has been overtaken by fishponds that he’s now considering building a huge reservoir soon along the banks of the St. Paul River somewhere in Virginia or Caldwell so they can move some of the fishes there for continuing production.
At his facility, Anderson produces his own fish-foods, and is already selling them to local pond owners, something that isn’t common in Liberia. Besides, he and his Liberian wife, this farming season, planted corn and other ingredients, used to produce the fish foods he’s already using.
Highly motivated by what he saw Wednesday, Hon. George seemed conflicted between where he should start his own first, whether in his compound in Monrovia, or at his farm near Bong Mines, Bong County.
Mr. Divine Anderson first walked into the JNB Foundation’s offices in Rehab, Paynesville, last December 7, and announced his small company would offer about 5 million fingerlings to this charity over the next five-year period, to be distributed among local fish farmers, ready to develop or grow their own fish businesses to serve the local market.
At the end of Anderson’s visit he and Hon. Jackson George Jr. signed an MOU that will allow both parties to help many people wanting to do the same business grow their own fish farm, all in support of Pres. Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s ARREST agenda, he said; writes James Kokulo Fasuekoi. All Photos by the author.
