Along the shores of East Africa’s Lake Victoria, in Kenya, women fisherfolk including those known for being victims of sexual exploitation are harnessing the Internet of Things (IoT) to help them counter their abusers while enhancing their incomes, writes Joseph Davis Weddi.
Fish trader and farmer Milly (name changed) told SciDev.Net how she used to offer her body to fishermen to obtain fish stocks at an affordable price to take to the market to sell, but she now breeds the tilapia herself and, thanks to digital technologies, she can bypass processes that expose her to bargaining with unscrupulous fishermen.
Along with other women who once traded their bodies to obtained fish, Milly co-owns floating cages in a digitally monitored fish farm on Lake Victoria.
Using their smart phones, the women can access information and receive notifications about the health of the fish they are rearing in the cages—and at the same time gain financial independence.
Not only are they countering the sexual exploitation, but they are working towards eradicating poverty in their homes—and improving food security—by taking direct ownership of the fish production process.
Fishermen catching wild fish on Lake Victoria have long exploited women fish traders.
“It was very difficult for me to get fish from the lake, because we have what is called: sex for fish,” says Milly, who used to sell silver fish at local markets.
“For you to get fish, without what we call ‘Jaboya’ [meaning customer], you can’t get the fish … you have to sell your body to get the fish … That is the big challenge.”
Kenya’s Rise to Shine Education Foundation says this degrading practice started due to dwindling fish populations on the lake resulting from overfishing and other environmental challenges which left business scrambling to get their catch. Vulnerable women and young girls, often under coercion, ended up agreeing to sex with the fishermen in order to secure their supply of fish to sell in local markets, according to the foundation.
Linah Velma, an official at Kisumu-based startup Aquarech Limited, which specialises in aquaculture technology and empowering women, explains: “Because of less fish stock in the lake … this puts our women fish traders in a very awkward position where they are forced to have sex [with the fishermen] to get fish.”
According to Velma, because Aquarech operates a business-to-business and business-to-consumer models and offers fish farmers a buy now, pay later solution for fish feed, women fisherfolk who have joined them have taken full advantage as they benefit from the free training and precision agriculture tools, such as digital technologies that help fish farmers learn about best practices and improve incomes.
In a focus group discussion organised by SciDev.Net, at Rasira beach in Homa bay county, women fisherfolk from various beaches in Migori said that owning fish cages, and using the internet to manage their fish farms, has freed them from Jaboya and poverty.
“We have seen that we are going to eradicate poverty because, when you have something at hand, you can go beyond,” said Angela Errie*, a discussion participant, noting that before starting fish farming they relied on men as they the women lacked economic means. “The men used to have control of everything, even at home.
“Since we started the project, we have … [learnt] everything. After harvesting we shall continue and keep the money at the bank, without them [men] knowing what we have,” Errie added, and drew smiles and laughter from other women in the discussion.
“You can know the condition of the fish only through the machine that has been just introduced for measuring water temperature and seeing whether the water is fit for the fish to survive, says another discussant who did not want her name published.
These women have each opened multiple bank accounts which they access on their smart phones. They have been trained on how to use aquaculture technology, with IoT sensors to monitor the fish they are breeding in the cages on the lake, led by Rio Fish Limited – a social enterprise dedicated to empowering women and creating better environmental outcomes while connecting fish farmers to markets.
“We are going to do away with poverty within our community because now, we are about to harvest our fish, so we will have something in our hands. No one will take it away,” says another group member.
“Rio Fish introduced us to fish cage technology. Initially we did not know anything about that. Women never went to the lake to fish, it was the role played by men,” Quinta Habil*, said with a wide smile and concurred with the rest that they can now stand on their own economically.
Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake, and the world’s largest tropical lake with a surface area of almost 60,000 square kilometres. It is shared by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Every year, fisherfolk on the lake harvest one million tonnes of fish valued at US$300 million, according to Edward Rukuunya, a director at Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation in Jinja, Uganda.
Cage fish farming is a highly significant development in aquaculture in East Africa according to the organisation, which recognises the multiple challenges affecting fisheries production and the livelihoods of the lake communities which depend on it.
As well as COVID-19 and flooding, the industry has been beset by among the fisher communities along the value chain, as well as HIV/AIDS and waterborne diseases such as bilharzia, according to its fisheries management plan.
Rukuunya says around 200,000 people are directly engaged in fishing across the Lake Victoria basin, while 700,000 are engaged in the fisheries value chain, .
However, women play a big role in the post-harvest handling of fish, known as artisanal fish processing, where they constitute more than 60 per cent of those employed.
“Women are the backbone within the fishing communities,” says Rukuunya.
“They labour a lot to get fish to feed the children, hence improving on nutrition. They labour a lot through their earning to pay [children’s school] fees… with the little earnings, they manage to pay hospital bills.
“Overall, they contribute to reducing poverty, improving health of the children and people within the fishing communities, hence contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals,” he adds.
Lake Victoria’s fishing industry has traditionally been controlled by men who owned the tools needed to catch wild fish. However, with the introduction of IoT and related digital technologies, notably mobile apps, the tables are starting to turn in favour of women in the fisheries value chain. More women are practicing cage fish farming as opposed to the labour-intensive wild fish catch on the lake.
Digitalisation in the fisheries value chain around Lake Victoria starts with a sensor that is placed in fish ponds or fish cages. The technology provides information and alerts that empower women fish traders to by-pass likely exploiters.