Dave's East Africa Blog: Day 13 Busia May 21, 2011

Hello from Busia

After breakfast today we spent another day of traveling to the fish farms to view some ponds that are managed properly and some that were not managed properly. Look at some of the various techniques to manage and maintain the farms. I was able to ask some more questions of those farmers that are doing well and some that are not doing so well. I was also able to review the books of one farmer to see how he accounts for everything daily. Lastly we traveled to the markets to see how the fish were sold locally and to one of the hatcheries to see how the fingerlings are raised before selling to the farmers.

Our first stop in the morning was to an experienced fish farmer Peter Omalo who has been farming for 11 years after retiring from government service. Peter has 6 very well managed ponds. While touring his ponds he showed me how to divert the creek to fill his ponds after harvesting. Caught a tilapia to show me proper sizing before harvest. He also took our group to another 4 ponds further upstream that were being severely mismanaged. The ponds capacity were for only 1000 catfish and the owner put in 2000 and was not feeding them properly. Catfish not fed properly will eat their own. Peter also caught one of the catfish out of the mismanaged pond to show me that after 10 months is wasn’t very big. Later that afternoon I was able to see another 10 month old catfish that was the proper size as you will see in the pictures. After the tour we went back to his home and he was kind enough to allow me to look at his books and answered many questions.

As I speak with various farmers I sometimes ask the same question. One of these questions is how much do they pay for a fingerling? Yesterday one lady told me 10 Ksh (80 Ksh = $1) today I asked Peter and he told me 5 Ksh. As I was looking at his books I noticed that he had paid as low as 3 Ksh per fingerling. At the last ponds of the day I asked that owner and he told me 7 Ksh per fingerling. Why the dramatic swing in prices between farmers? Other questions continue to bring up other questions.

Drained catfish pond

Diverting creek to fill ponds

Holding up water to fill up pond

Opening fill tube to fill pond

Filling pond for new batch of fish

Right size talapia for harvesting

Overstocked and under fed catfish

10 month old catfish out of overstocked pond

10 month old catfish out of properly managed farm

Our second visit of the day was to another experienced fish farmer Jackson Kanani who has a total of 13 very well managed ponds. Jackson has grown past what one farmer can manage of about 6 ponds to hiring 2 other workers to help him with 13. There is another employee that he shares with another local farmer that provides security at night for his ponds and his neighbors. Today was harvesting day and we arrived after the first 600 catfish were removed from the pond and did not get to see them. There was still another 200 to 400 in the pond of the original 1000 to be harvested. They were not able to finish the draining of the pond for the second harvest before we had to leave so I had them do an example of using the net to remove the fish and they caught a few catfish for me to see. Jackson put in 1000 catfish and he feels his yield will be low because of a few problems and he fears his yield will only be about 800 catfish. He is also experimenting with different techniques to ward off predators. While we were at one of the back ponds I saw something moving across the pond that at first looked like a snake. Peter told me it was a monitor lizard and as I went around the pond to get a picture it ran off into the maize. The other major predators other then birds are otters. After asking many questions from all the farmers that I had talked to about what it would take to be more profitable I pretty much got the same answer. Knowledge seemed to be the first on every ones mind. Others included proper feeds, certified fish species, security, fencing, predator control, and a really big one new markets.

Draining catfish pond for harvesting

Harvesting the catfish

Very well maintained ponds (13)

Bird control over catfish pond

Two other stops today were to visit a place where fish are sold in a local village. The tilapia and catfish are sometimes sold along side the Nile perch from Lake Victoria. The other and last stop was to visit a fish hatchery run by the Ministry of Fish. Then it was back to the hotel for a late lunch. I did way too much walking today so I took an hour nap before going back out and discussing the day’s events. Tomorrow it is back to Kakamega after some more discussion and planning of a follow up trip to meet with the 80 farmers and government officials as a group to discuss where to go from here.

Selling fish at the fish market