I make my own feeds and save a big deal

Standing by the pond with a small bucket, Charles Momanyi dips his hands into the container, picks some pellets and throws them at the centre of the pool.

He repeats the exercise until he empties the fish pellet from the five-litre container. Momanyi then retreats to his house to fill the bucket. He thereafter walks to another fish pond.

The farmer makes his own fish pellets, with which he feeds his fish and also sells to colleagues.

“I started making my own feeds because I found commercial ones expensive. I was buying a kilo at Sh250 from a firm that imports them,” says Momanyi, who rears fish in Ruai on the outskirts of Nairobi.

The farmer started keeping fish on his half acre plot about four years ago following the rollout of the National Agriculture and Livestock Programme (Nalep) by the government and its partners.

Nalep officials trained and offered them Sh25,000 to dig a pond, free fingerlings and fish feeds that lasted a year.

“When I exhausted Nalep feeds, it was time to start buying my own. I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I could not quit fish farming because I had seen its rewards, and yet the feeds were expensive,” says Momanyi. Each fish goes for an average Sh120.

Faced with the challenge, Momanyi and other farmers went back to Nalep officials at the Ministry of Agriculture.

They were trained for two days on how to make their own feeds and were given machines.

To make the feeds, he starts with buying the ingredients from dealers. They include dagaa (omena), wheat pollard, wheat bran/maize bran soya bean and cotton seed cake/ sunflower seed cake.

Whether one is making feeds in kilos or grams, dagaa should consist of 15 per cent, maize bran 45 per cent, wheat pollard 10 per cent and sunflower seed cake 30 per cent. The source of energy (maize bran) should be higher.

“I also add cassava and water, which helps in binding the mixture for easy formation of the pellets. I then dry the pellets for two days before selling,” explains the 42-year-old who started making feeds five months ago.

Momanyi sells the formulation at Sh150 a kilo to other farmers and Sh115 to members of their group. From the feeds, he earns Sh50,000 a month.

“I make Sh1,500 profit from every 90kg bag of feeds,” says Momanyi, who is building his second pond.

Dr Jonathan Munguti of Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) says while making feeds, cassava flour used to bind the pellets should not be more than five per cent to prevent the pellets from sinking.

“The farmer should also consider drying the materials properly to avoid aflatoxin being transferred to the fish. The percentage of proteins which fish rely on for growth should not surpass 50 per cent,” advised the senior Assistant Director of Aquaculture.

Munguti advises that fish should be fed twice a day; at 10am and 2pm.

“During the night, oxygen is depleted in the water. Therefore, it is not wise to feed fish in the morning because they are stressed. During the day, there is enough oxygen in the water due to breakdown of the chlorophyll.”

He warns against feeding fish when it is cold. “It is important to feed fish at a single point to prevent them from swimming all over the place, making them use up the energy they need for their growth.”