What fish farmers must consider to upscale profit

Many farmers delve into fish farming without having the requisite knowledge of the best agronomy practices that can make it a worthwhile venture. They read about the millions others are making from fish farming without stopping to ask the how-to-do-it in terms of water management, the feeding and the type of feeds that give best […]

Many farmers delve into fish farming without having the requisite knowledge of the best agronomy practices that can make it a worthwhile venture.
They read about the millions others are making from fish farming without stopping to ask the how-to-do-it in terms of water management, the feeding and the type of feeds that give best results, the quantity to start with, and who to manage the place for them and the markets.
The result of these lapses is that the farmer(s) will experience huge losses – sometimes losing more than half of what is invested.
Experts have, however, said that farmers must consider the steps below to increase their profit margin and expansion:
Chief Arakunrin Bode Mebude owns an agribusiness school in Abuja with over 30 years’ experience in agriculture. He opines that a fish farmer must consider first of all, acquiring knowledge on the various techniques of culturing fishes if he or she must be successful.
Besides knowledge, he said farmers must have water quality management skills, which according to him, is necessary for their growth.
“Once you can manage the water quality, they (the fish) will have a good ambiance and eat well because the water quality can affect the way they feed and the oxygen level in the water. If the water quality is not right, they will refuse to eat and disease can set in and many things can happen,” the agric science teacher said
Another thing is the feed. The health of the fish depends on their ability to feed well, once they refuse to eat, that means the problem is with the water.
Mr. Mebude stressed that the application of the feed matters a lot; and the ability to produce your own feed will reduce your expenses by 50% but many farmers instead rely on foreign feeds and by the time they harvest, they will be counting losses instead of gains.
Another fishery expert, Ayuba Oliver, who agrees with Mebude, advises farmers to use foreign feed for one month, while a home-compounded-feed with good protein percentage commensurate to the age of the fish should be developed.
 “If you don’t do that, you will discover that a lot of thousands will be spent on feeding and you won’t get anything. Many people have been frustrated out of fish farming because of this,” he said.
Medube pointed out that fish farmers in Ijebu-Ode, Ibadan and Oyo are successful because they know this secret, adding that “most of the fish that come to Abuja are from that axis and they grow their fish to 2.5kg and above. Hardly will you get that from an average farmer in Abuja.”
 Farmers are also advised to sort their fish every month in order to separate the shut-outs, which are the ones that are extremely growing faster than the normal school; because genetically some have high tendency of growing about 50-100 per cent more than the stock. So you need to remove those ones to avoid cannibalism, which often starts even from the fingerling stage.
Mohammed Shu’aibu is a Genetic Engineer and CEO Mohas Agro Services in Abuja. He admonishes fish farmers to always add value by smoking whatever fish they produce as that will scale up profit significantly.
“Smoking your fish will double your income. But those who sell fresh might not make anything significant because a kilogram is N500 or even less,” he said.
He noted that irregular feeding in terms of quantity of feeds, leaving the fish to go hungry for days encourages cannibalism, particularly in catfish and stunted growth.
The experts believe that if those who manage your farm are dishonest, they can cause havoc and scale up expenses that will be difficult to recover.
They also said farmers must have accurate farm records, including projections. The record will be able to determine how much you spent to raise a particular fish farm.
But many farmers do guess work and by the time they discover the loss incurred, the damage is done.
In fact, the records can tell you how much it takes to raise one fish to 2kg and you can make projection of how much profit you can make from a farm, experts asserted.