Chairman of Catfish Farmers' Association of Nigeria (CAFAN), Mr. Olawale Tajudeen, has urged youths to take interest in fish farming, describing it as a lucrative business.

He stated this while addressing newsmen shortly after a team of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development visited Kwara State to assess the impact of the government's Growth Enhancement Support scheme for fish farmers recently.

The chairman said members of the association have the capacity to meet the country's fish demand and stop importation of fish in the country.

He, however, called on the Federal Government to increase the level of its support to fish farmers to boost their capacity to meet the deficit in the nation's fish requirements.

It would be recalled that under the Federal Government's Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme, each of the 760 farmers who benefitted in the state got 500 juveniles free of charge while five bags of feed were sold to them at 50 per cent subsidised price.

Tajudeen observed that though the GES scheme has impacted on fish farmers as discovered during a recent assessment tour of the state, the scheme should be made a quarterly project to bring in more farmers.

He also called on government to reduce the cost of feed by making them to pay 25 per cent instead of the 50 per cent currently paid.

The chairman urged the youth to show interest in fish farming which he described as a lucrative business capable of surmounting unemployment challenge.

Also speaking, Mr. Lawal Ademola of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development stressed government's commitment to empowering local fish farmers to increase availability of fish and provide employment opportunity for the youths.