Women's Empowerment and Climate Justice: Three fish preservation, handling and processing interventions improving livelihoods in Kenya’s Lake Victoria region

When you pilot three different technological innovations and the feedback from participating communities is an enthusiastic plea for “bigger and more”, you must be doing something right.

That’s how it’s been for Rahma Adam, Senior Scientist and Social-Economic Inclusion Impact Lead at WorldFish.

Rahma and her team introduced the solar tent dryers, fish smoking kilns and solar-powered freezers to fishing communities in Kenya’s Lake Victoria region. It’s part of her work under the CGIAR Initiative on Aquatic Foods, Ukama Ustawi: Diversification for Resilient Agribusiness Ecosystems in East and Southern Africa, and CGIAR Gender Impact Platform. All have gone down a storm. “They all want bigger, and more,” she said.

The work set out to tackle one of the main challenges to fishing communities in the region: food safety, fish loss and fish preservation – you can watch the accompanying video below:

Lake Victoria – the second largest lake in the world – supports around 200,000 fishers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with more than 50 million people depending on it directly or indirectly for their livelihoods. But with fish being a highly perishable product, fishing communities have little time to either preserve, eat or sell their catches before they spoil – usually little more than two days. It results in unnecessary waste and a loss of food and income.

Climate change is making things worse. Annual average temperatures and rainfall in the region have been on the rise over the last four decades. Increased water temperatures in the lake, among other biotic and non-biotic stresses have also affected fish stocks, which in turn has contributed to conflicts, disease, and left already vulnerable communities more exposed.

Bearing the brunt of the impact are the many women involved in post-harvest fishing activities, such as those using traditional methods to dry one of the region’s most important catches, a small fish, the silver cyprinid (Rastrineobola argentea), which is referred as omena, or dagaa by the locals. On any given morning on the edge of Kenya’s Lake Victoria region, the ground seems to twinkle as these tiny silvery cyprinid fish are dried in the sun – usually on fishing nets laid on the ground. For hours, women sweep the fish to turn them and ensure even drying.

But increasing rainfall linked to climate change means there are now more cloudy days, which in turn means slower drying and a greater chance the fish will spoil. There are also hygiene concerns related to drying the omena in this way: it’s easy for the drying fish to be contaminated by dust and dirt, plus there’s the risk of pillage by omnipresent flocks of egrets and dogs. The longer they need to dry, the greater the risk.

The tentative success of solar dryers

The first intervention by Rahma’s team supported the construction of solar tent dryers for communities in Migori County – primarily to help with the drying of omena. The dryers look like greenhouses with polythene sides instead of glass, and inside they contain drying racks raised up off the floor. A small, walk-in solar tent dryer can dry around 150kg of omena in a couple of hours on sunny days and, importantly, the dryers still work on cloudy days. Securely closed, they also allow the women undertake other tasks rather than spending the morning sweeping the fish or chasing away birds. A series of health protocols for the safe handling of the fish have also been introduced.

Olger Auma Radney, Chief of Muhuru Sub-County, and leader of the Samaki Women Group, said the dryer had changed the lives of the community: They can now dry their fish whenever there is a need, and their customers benefit from safer handling. She also saw the potential of what the community could do with more dryers, and larger ones.

During a courtesy call to George Ochola, Country Chief Officer for Fisheries and Blue Economy in Migori County, Rahma shared an update to introduce a much larger dryer in the county – one with ten times the drying capacity. “Please bring five more!” George quickly interjected. It might be wishful thinking, but it speaks to the rate at which word has spread about the dryers and the potential many see in scaling up their use.

Solar-powered freezers spark new opportunities

The second intervention was in Nyandiwa sub-County, in Homa Bay – the largest riparian county in Kenya’s Lake Victoria Zone region.

Here, the 40-strong Luor Ber Suna Ladies Women Group received a chest freezer from the project. Installed at one of the members’ homes, it is powered by solar panels on the roof, with storage batteries ensuring the freezers run around the clock. The freezers have enabled the Suna Ladies to deal with the issue of fish perishability and the challenge of unaffordable and unreliable electricity at the same time. The fish can be safely stored in the freezer for several months.

Initially intended for the Group to preserve their own fish, the freezer has become a resource used by the wider community, with the Suna Ladies charging a small fee charged per kilo of fish preserved. The solar panels are even used to charge the lanterns the fishermen use on their boats.

The freezers are a potential game changer in other ways too: the Suna Ladies are now considering expanding into aquaculture, since they know they will always be able to preserve what they harvest.

Kilns that are smoking-hot

The third intervention was a fish smoking kiln, installed at the village of Nyachebe in Mbita sub-County, also in Homa Bay. Standing under shade in a communal garden, the kiln looks like an industrial oven with a small chimney and is operated by members of the Good Start women’s group.

Medium and large fish – such as tilapia and nile perch – are prepped and placed on a large grilling shelf. With the oven door closed, the fire box underneath is stuffed with wood, shelled maize cobs and other combustibles, and set alight. Before long the chimney starts smoking and the process is underway.

Smoking takes about two hours, depending on the size of the fish portions. And once smoked, the fish lasts up to six months. It’s a boon for a community that normally needs to rush the fish to market and hope that it sells the same day, and who need to re-fry any unsold fish to try to make it last longer.

Mary Awour of Good Start tells us that prior to having the kiln you would usually see children running around the village on weekdays. Now all the children are in school, because members can afford the school fees thanks to the income from smoked fish.

The Group also sees the potential of fish smoking as a business that can grow. They could become a hub for fish smoking for the wider area, charging a fee for the service, says Rahma.

“They are excited,” she continues. They want to expand their business. They want bigger smoking kilns; they want more smoking kilns. They want to see themselves thriving in the production of smoked fish.”

The project is also supporting the Group to harvest the omega 3 oil – a by-product of the smoking process – helping them to refine it, package it and hopefully one day, sell it.

The way ahead

While Rahma and her project partners look to bring these innovations to more parts of Kenya’s Lake Victoria Region, they are also taking a wider approach to fish-based livelihoods there. They are working with the County Government of Homa Bay to support gender-sensitive fisheries and aquaculture policy in the lake. This includes developing vocational training programmes, partnering with universities and the private sector to support small-scale aquaculture businesses for women and youth, and working with cottage industries related to the fish processing sector.

“It’s a journey we will walk together,” said Rahma.

Story by Neil Palmer for the CGIAR Initiative on Aquatic Foods.

Additional info

The work was funded by Ukama Ustawi: Diversification for Resilient Agribusiness Ecosystems in East and Southern Africa initiative; the CGIAR Initiative on Aquatic Foods; and the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform. It was implemented by: WorldFish, with the support of the County Government of Homa Bay, the County Governent of Migori, Murang’a University of Technology, and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)-Africa Center.

It contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 on climate action, SDG5, which aims at achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls. Additionally, SDG14 on life below water includes a strong focus on aquatic foods, and is central to the livelihoods, food, and nutrition security of more than 800 million people in developing countries. While these three SDGs are intrinsically important, they are also critical levers in achieving other SDGs through poverty reduction and enhanced food and nutrition security.