County by County

How to map out a CIDP Story – an Example

The Uasin Gishu Fingerlings

Developing a nice story out of the County’s CIDP

The following is just an example from agriculture and fisheries in the Uasin Gishu County Integrated Development Plan, CIDP, along the steps named here.

In Chapter 2 of the Uasin Gishu CIDP (or here external links) you find remarks about the good and the bad in the fisheries sector (from page 12, (which is page 18 of the pdf file).
“Fish production in the County has improved significantly”… but the plan also cites various obstacles like expensive fish food, lack of fingerlings, inadequate water supply. Good issues for follow-ups!
In the tabella on page 13 you also see that Tilapia is an overwhelmingly important catch, where 420 out of 920 producers are women and 289 are youth. The units have produced 92 tons of fish in 2012 of which an estimated 80 percent were marketed. The County Department in charge of Fisheries may be able to give you an update on these numbers.

The CIDP states that one major obstacle to the fishery development is the lack of healthy fingerlings from the county itself. See page 14 for the important details: The fingerlings die on their way from producers in Nyanza. On the other hand there is an under-utilized fish farm at the University of Eldoret.

By continous search in the pdf document for the word “fingerling” you will find what the county government was planning to do against the obstacles to the growth of fisheries in Uasin Gishu:

Fingerling related Plans in Uasin Gishu Counts 2013 – 2017
  • A half million shillings from a Public-Private partnership who produce fingerlings should boost fish growth rate and maturity size by 90 percent. (p. 146)
  • With 350,000 KES, a total of 100 dams in the county were to be stocked with 50.000 fingerlings each (p. 149)
  • 5 million KES was planned to be used to establish a reliable fish breeding centre in the county or contract the University of Eldoret. This was planned to make fingerlings 70 percent cheaper for the county’s fish farms. (p.151)
  • Additionally, at a cost of 40 million KES, all fish farmers were to be given fingerlings at subsidized prices. But this was mentioned under the assumption “that the programme will be funded.”
  • The county wanted the number of fish ponds to double in the planning period. (p.151)
Why such stories are great to follow for a journalist

The beauty of a research on the Uasin Gishu fingerlings is that all the single plans can be verified or falsified. Have the goals been met or not? What were the factors of success? What were the reasons for failure? The tables in the Uasin Gishu CIDP also mention the sources for verifying. Like the “Annual FSS Reports”. Find out what that abbreviation stands for. You are the journalist. The director in the fisheries department can tell you.

This was just an example. There are plenty of news worthy stories in your County’s CIDP.

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