Discover challenges and opportunities in fish farming

Students take part in an ‘eat more fish’ campaign. A recent study in one county aimed at finding out the opportunities in the fish value chain listed five main challenges to the subsector. PHOTO | JECINTA MWIRIGI | NMG

What you need to know:

  • Aquaculture remains a viable option to improve production.
  • To overcome the challenge of mixed sex, farmers are encouraged to practice mono-sex culture to support productivity. 
  • Most of the smallholder farmers sell dressed fish within the local market. This indicates a relatively poor level of processing standards, quality, presentation and packaging.
  • To address the issue of fish feeds, smallholder farmers are advised to consult their local extension officers of how to produce home-made rations for their fish from locally available materials.

Fish farming is characterised by small ponds, subsistence-level management, and very low levels of production.

However, in the midst of declining capture from wild inland and marine fisheries owing to effects of over harvesting, pollution of water by human activities, and reducing water levels coupled with increased consumption caused by changing eating habits, aquaculture remains a viable option to improve fish production in the country. 

A recent study in one of the counties aimed at finding out the opportunities in the fish value chain listed five main challenges, namely, low production/productivity, limited supply of fingerlings, limited value addition, limited quality feeds and limited market access.

Low production/productivity

The production in the study area was as low as 0.36 kilogrammes per square metre among smallholder producers compared to the potential of 0.50 - 0.70 kilogrammes/m2.

The mostly practised poly-culture (more than one species) of tilapia with African catfish and mixed sex culture system of farming results in low pond productivity. 

To overcome the challenge of mixed sex, farmers are encouraged to practice mono-sex culture to support productivity. 

In the latter, one fish gender is introduced into a pond. In tilapia, the male gender is highly recommended due to its fast growth rate reaching table size requirements between six and eight months.

Another advantage of the mono-sex is that the number of fish remains constant unlike in the mixed sex status where the fish continue to multiply making it difficult for one to estimate the amount of required feed.

Catfish has an advantage in that it rarely multiplies in captivity and there the number introduced into a pond is likely to remain constant.

The above measures have to be combined with good agricultural practices (GAP) that include supply of quality water, fingerlings and feeds plus control of predators.

Production in a given area can be boosted by exploiting the numerous aquatic resources with potential for aquaculture. These include the freshwater lakes, rivers, swamps, dams and other wetlands.

This is made possible by introduction of technologies such as the cage fish farming that allows one to introduce floating kind of specialised ponds in a water body.

Limited supply of fingerlings

The fast growing number of smallholder fish farmers requires dependable, affordable, and adequate supply of fingerlings.

To address the issue of fingerlings, the farmers are advised to form cooperatives that will establish a dedicated fingerling production system by building the capacity of selected producer groups to start and manage open pond hatcheries to enhance the production of quality fingerlings. 

The system will involve properly constructed and well managed ponds with the sole purpose of producing fingerlings for sale or restocking into grow out ponds within the same area and beyond. 

Cooperatives will thus address the issues of economies of scale whereby one smallholder farmer is unlikely to support a growing market.

Further, the cooperative will link the farmers to appropriate sources of fund to acquire necessary tools and equipment including nets as well as proper transport system to facilitate delivery of the fish to the farms. 

In addition, the cooperative will visit the farmers frequently to monitor the production process and verify the quality of fingerlings produced and sold to the farmers. 

Limited value addition/processing

Most of the smallholder farmers sell dressed fish within the local market. This indicates a relatively poor level of processing standards, quality, presentation and packaging.

A significant improvement in these standards would suggest that substantially higher returns can be achieved to the benefit of processors as well as fishermen through creating marketing strength and at the same time building customer recognition and consumer confidence in the product.

Processing of dressed fish into higher value products such as fillet allows the investor to access higher value markets and reduce losses experienced post-harvest and generate more returns from the investment.

Limited quality feeds
Feeds constitute up to 40 - 50 per cent of total production costs and are responsible for the high production costs incurred by the farmers.

Therefore, to improve the profitability and viability of the aquaculture industry, it is necessary to ensure that farmers have access to quality feeds that are formulated to standardized specifications of the reared fish at its various development stages.

To address the issue of fish feeds, smallholder farmers are advised to consult their local extension officers of how to produce home-made rations for their fish from locally available materials.

They can also introduce cheaper but effective feeds such as biogas slurry. 

Limited market access

The study recommended the formation of a cooperative that can source for local and external market. The local market is still unsaturated with fish consumption being about 4.5kg/capita/year as compared to the global average of about 20 Kg/capita/year.