How I am developing my fish farm with N2m loan— Farmer

Ahmed is a fish farmer in Eika Adagu area of Adavi Local Government of Kogi State, he told Daily Trust that fish farming  is  lucrative if the environment is conducive for the operators.“Marketing is not a challenge in fish production because once you start harvesting buyers would start coming to buy from you. And within […]

Ahmed is a fish farmer in Eika Adagu area of Adavi Local Government of Kogi State, he told Daily Trust that fish farming  is  lucrative if the environment is conducive for the operators.
“Marketing is not a challenge in fish production because once you start harvesting buyers would start coming to buy from you. And within few days all the yield would be exhausted. Any serious fish farmer harvests twice a year and we sell in kilos depending on the size of fish and raging from N600 to N1,000 and above,” he said.
He told Daily Trust that he started the fish business in 2010 with one pond from his little savings but today he has three fish ponds.
“Two of the ponds are stocked with 2,000 fish each while the third pond is stocked with 1,000 fish bringing the total number of fish in the ponds to 5,000. I am also planning to construct another pond that has the capacity of stocking 7,000 fish. I stock my ponds with fingerlings from Mark farm. The fingerlings cost between N70 and N100 depending on size,” he said.
He said fund is the major problem  because you need capital to expand and get feeds for the fish, adding that feed takes the major chuck of the capital as a bag cost between N4,500 and N5,000.
If a farmer has feeds to take care of his fish, according to him, one can be in the business but if the farmer can’t,  there is no way he or she can be in the business, adding, “floating feeds which are the best are not produced locally in the country but imported. To feed the capacity we have in these ponds and nurture them to maturity is not easy. This is why I said feed is the major challenge of fish farming. And I want to be producing instead of buying at exorbitant rate.
“With the small loan I was able to secure from the Bank of Industry,  I am trying to procure feed mill so that I can be producing feeds on my own as that is the only way I can attain the full potential,” he said.
Alhaji Ahmed also told Daily Trust that he secured N2 million loan from the bank and that from the loan, the bank procured two fish driers for him at the cost of about N1.4 million, adding that it was the balance he would now use to buy feed for the fish and expand; and buy other things in the farm.
He added that the driers have the capacity of smoking 200 fish at once in the shortest time possible using charcoal, adding, “another challenge in fish farming is water. You need to change the water at intervals because if the water is dirty before you know it some of the fish will die. So, one must have good source of water supply before achieving success. I constructed a borehole for my ponds.
“On the average, I make a profit of between N200,000 and N300,000 per harvest. At least that is better than sitting idle and waiting for someone else to come and help you,” he said.  
According to him, the stress involved in fish production is not much while the mortality rate is very low, adding  “if a farmer has  about 2000 fingerlings in his pond, he can harvest about 1,600 losing about 400 but to feed such number to maturity is not easy.”
While commending government for the N2 million he got, he urged both the state and federal governments to make fund available to them, saying that the idea of banks buying equipment for farmers is not completely right because if you have equipment and you can’t feed your fish you will not record success.