For many years, prospective fish farmers in Nyandarua County have been grappling with breeding warm-water fish species faster in the cold region on the edge of the Great Rift Valley. On average, such warm-water fish require temperatures of between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius to breed and grow faster to earn farmers’ profits.
But Nyahururu’s temperatures average 13 degrees Celsius and can hit lows of 10 degree Celsius. The introduction of greenhouse fish farming technology by a non-governmental organisation, Tree is Life, is expected to help change the fortunes of farmers in the twin counties of Nyandarua and Laikipia.
“In a greenhouse, tilapia fingerlings can attain a weight of up to 100 grammes within three months, which is impossible under natural conditions. They feed and breed better under these controlled conditions,” says Mr David Ruhiu, one of the first farmers to try out this technology.
Fact File
- Sh330,000 – The cost of greenhouse building materials and dam liners used to build the fish greenhouses.
- Sh100,000 -The amount of money it cost one farmer to stock his pond with fingerlings.
- 100 grammes – The weight a tilapia fingerling attains within three months in a greenhouse, which is impossible under natural conditions.
- 15 – The acreage of Mr Ruhiu’s farm in Nyahururu.
On his 1.5-acre farm that overlooks Lake Olborosat — a few miles from Nyahururu Town on the Nyeri-Nyahururu road — the father of four runs five fishponds, teeming with tilapia and catfish. However, inside a greenhouse next to these ponds, is another 30 by 10 metre pond he says is not only the lifeline of the other five, but also of the families in the area. It is from this pond that he breeds his fish and raises the much-sought after table-size fish.
But why cover up an entire fishpond with a greenhouse?
“We realised that weather variability has impacted negatively on fish farming in the county. Our research showed that changed water temperature through the greenhouse can boost fish production, especially in cold counties such as Nyandarua,” says Mr Thomas Gichuru, the director of Tree is Life project. Under the fish project funded by ACT, a national donor organisation, the county fishing department picked four farmers to start greenhouses on their farms for the piloting phase. All were chosen for their wide knowledge and experience in fish farming.
“Each had to prove that he has access to ample water supply throughout the year, dig a fish pond to the required specifications, stock it with fingerlings, and then demonstrate keen interest and initiative so that the project input would bear fruit in the long run,” says the director.
The organisation supplied selected farmers with all greenhouse building materials and dam liners that reduce seepage of the water, valued at a cost of Ksh330,000. One of the farmers who qualified for the project, Mr David Ruhiu, dug a fishpond at a cost of Ksh18,000 and invested a further Ksh100,000 to stock it with fingerlings. He sank two wells to guarantee uninterrupted water supply to the fish ponds, especially during the dry season.
The greying clay soils on his farm made it ideal for pond construction. They are well compacted, allowing very little seepage of water for years. The greenhouse changed the farmer’s fortunes within seven days. It has not only increased the growth of his fish stock, but also eliminated a cumbersome process of breeding.
Previously, Mr Ruhiu would mix male and female fish in the breeding ponds to mate and lay eggs. He would then squeeze the eggs out of the female mouths and carry the fertilized eggs to his house, where he incubated them under room temperature before returning the fingerlings to the main ponds. “A lot of eggs and fingerlings would be lost in the process,” he says.
The green house fish technology has changed all that. Today, the fish hatch and incubate in cages inside the greenhouse pond. The fingerlings are raised in cages suspended in the main pond where they are fed separately from other fish although they share the water. They are also protected from bigger fish.
He is also closing the supply demand gap for fingerings, thanks to doubled hatching and the incubating rate. Within a month, he supplied 50,000 fingerlings to other farmers and organisations at Ksh20 each, earning Sh1 million. “With the growth of fish farming and consumption, the demand for fingerlings and fish, in general, is so high that local farmers cannot meet it,” he says. The greenhouse fish technology is the solution to the problem that he and other fellow fish farmers have been struggling with for years. He no longer has to worry every time temperatures drop.
“Sometimes, overheating can lead to temperatures soaring to 34-38Cº, making the water dangerously hot and lethal. It becomes appropriate to roll up one side of the greenhouse canvas to allow cool air into the pond,” he says. Better still, he can now make apt projections and timelines in his fish production calendar. “It’s easy estimate the number of fish attaining maturity and calculate likely earnings. It is also possible to breed and raise fish rrespective of climatic conditions,” says the project director. The four pilot greenhouses will also be used to train more people on fish farming, promote value addition and become the source of fingerlings to future rollout of the project.
Fish Farming Enterprise Productivity
Implemented under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) during the Mwai Kibaki government, FFEP promoted fish farming with a view to easing pressure on the country’s major water bodies.
However, the programme failed in the region leading to a blame game between farmers and fisheries officials on the cause of the failure.
The ESP was a multi-pronged project that aimed at enhancing food security, creating employment and healthy living. From the fisheries ministry then, millions of shillings were directed to the grassroots to help farmers construct fish ponds.
At least 200 ponds were to be dug per constituency in all the 140 identified electoral regions countrywide.
Farmers were not only assisted with the ponds but also supplied with fingerlings and feeds. In Migori, hundreds of farmers were brought on board and within a few months they started to earn huge dividends due to increased fish stocks, healthy living and income from sales.
However, today the story has changed with no trace of the funded ponds in all the eight constituencies. A KNA spot-check within the region found out conflicting reasons from both the county government and the local farmers as to why the project flopped.
While the farmers claimed official corruption sunk the project, fisheries officials accused the beneficiaries of neglecting their ponds after benefiting for a short period.
With low stocks in the lake and collapse of ponds, Migori stares at fish crisis
Dwindling fish stocks in Lake Victoria is becoming a major problem for fishermen and consumers in Nyanza.
In Migori County, for example, which has the largest share of the lake in Kenya, fishers are now thinking of alternative economic activities in the face of diminishing returns from fishing.
The drastic drop in fish yields has been blamed on the invasive hyacinth weed, use of unstandardised nets and chemicals, piracy and harassment of fishermen by Ugandan security agencies. The Ugandans have been accused of illegally confiscating fish from Kenyan fishermen on flimsy charges of trespassing into their waters. Brokers from outside the county also monopolise the industry and because they are mainly in the export business, local markets have been starved of fish leading to a rise in prices.
Mr. Peter Onyango, a fisherman and a member of Aneko Beach Management Unit (BMU), is worried about the changing trends in the business that has been his economic backbone for years. “Fish from the lake has continued to reduce drastically. In the past two years, we used to get two tonnes per day but presently on a lucky day you can only get one or even half-a-tonne,” says Onyango. Onyango believes that a solution to the fishermen’s problem now lies in the use of ponds to grow fish.
“There is a huge potential for fish farming in this region owing to the availability of land and water sources,” he says. Many residents are now thinking of venturing into fish farming and groups have started forming to see the dream come true.
“But the investment required for this kind of venture is beyond the fishermen’s means and that is why they have to seek assistance from the government and donor partners,” he explains, adding that one needs about Sh500,000 to start the business. A senior fisheries official at the Migori County government, Joseph Otieno, agrees that fish farmers can achieve the dream only with the intervention of the government.
“This is why we remember with nostalgia the now moribund programme — Fish Farming Enterprise Productivity (FFEP) — that tried to breed fish outside the lake waters,” he said. Implemented under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) during the Mwai Kibaki government, FFEP promoted fish farming with a view to easing pressure on the country’s major water bodies.
However, the programme failed in the region leading to a blame game between farmers and fisheries officials on the cause of the failure. The ESP was a multi-pronged project that aimed at enhancing food security, creating employment and healthy living.
From the fisheries ministry then, millions of shillings were directed to the grassroots to help farmers construct fish ponds. At least 200 ponds were to be dug per constituency in all the 140 identified electoral regions countrywide.
Farmers were not only assisted with the ponds but also supplied with fingerlings and feeds. In Migori, hundreds of farmers were brought on board and within a few months they started to earn huge dividends due to increased fish stocks, healthy living and income from sales. However, today the story has changed with no trace of the funded ponds in all the eight constituencies. A KNA spot-check within the region found out conflicting reasons from both the county government and the local farmers as to why the project flopped.
While the farmers claimed official corruption sunk the project, fisheries officials accused the beneficiaries of neglecting their ponds after benefiting for a short period.
“The farmers started behaving badly after they received huge profits and switched to investing into other businesses causing the project to collapse” said Mr. Otieno, who admitted that FFEP was an eye-opener and needed to be revived in the region and country at large.
There is a huge potential for fish farming in this region owing to the availability of land and water sources. many residents are now thinking of venturing into fish farming and groups have started forming to actualize the dream.