More fish farmers head to Dutse stream
Few months ago, Daily Trust visited Dutse stream where some fish farmers seized the fish farming opportunities that abound in the area to engage in agro-aqua venture that will fetch more money for them.
And three days ago, the reporter went back to the stream to see how the fish farming business is faring in the areas and discovered that more fish farmers are trooping into the area to invest in fish farming.
Malam Bala Abdullahi
manages some of the fish farms on behalf of the farmers. He told the reporter that since the day Daily Trust first did a story about the fish farming opportunities in the area, a lot more of the farmers came and established scores of ponds.
“I was at home when two men came with a copy of the newspaper asking me for modalities of establishing farms in the area. One man even offered to train me on hatchery,” he said.
As the reporter walked along the stream with the fish farmer, new ponds were seen been constructed.
Malam Rufa’i, also a farm manager to some farmers in the area, said the tempo of activities has increased significantly in the area in the last few months as more farmers are coming in regularly to establish fish farms.
Most of the farmers, he noted, “are civil servants who have little time to come in here on daily basis” so he manages it for them.
Malam Bala and Rufa’i along with others are paid certain amount of money every month depending on the number of ponds owned by each farmer for taking care of the fish and
for security. A farmer who has just one pond with less than 1,500 fish pays less.
The farmers’ responsibility is to supply the feeds, while they handle the day-to-day running of the farms.
But Bala Abdullahi who has been in the business of managing fish farms after undergoing training in Ibadan, Oyo State, worries that some fish farmers don’t take feeding seriously; a situation he said “will definitely affect the growth of the fish.”
Pointing at one of the ponds, he lamented that the farmer has abandoned the fish for almost a month now. He also noted that some farmers will stock thousands of fish without money to buy feeds citing four cases of farmers who currently have the problem.
“You see these fish, if you don’t give them food, they will start eating themselves and some will eventually die,” he stressed.
A fish consultant, Dr Abraham Bush Abba, who spoke to Daily Trust on the importance of feeding advised fish farmers who want to make meaningful profit to ensure that the animals are properly fed.
“It is not about just stocking five thousand or more, but farmers should learn how to start with something they can manage to feed well to get the kind of result they want,” Dr Bush advised.
He noted that many farmers incur losses because they failed to stock the number they can manage in their farms. The result of this, he said is having stunted growth in fishes, high mortality rate and high rate of cannibalism.
A fish farmer who declined to mention his name, while sharing his experience, said he once made the mistake of stocking over five ponds which was difficult to feed as a result of dwindling resources he encountered along the way. The effect of that, he pointed out, made him lose over N150,000 from his initial investment of N400,000 from a loan he took.
“That was a bitter lesson for me, but I refused to back out,” he stated. He is today managing two ponds while renting out the other ones. “I will grow them gradually,” he promised.
Another farmer, Yusuf Gomna, believes fish farming is rewarding if you give it adequate attention, feeding and proper water management at the ponds.
“Some people just jump into it because they have seen somebody making millions, they will not study what has to been done first. They stock plenty with the hope that they will make N2 million or more during the harvest and then buying the feeds becomes a problem. That is why I want to manage one pond first,” he said.
Effort to speak to one of the female farmers with 11 ponds, who is also a director with one of the federal government agencies, did not yield fruitful result.
For some fish farmers in Abuja, Dutse Stream along Bwari road, off Muko road, Dutse remains a hub for fish farming activities.