Introduction
Nigeria is the largest catfish producer in Africa and second largest fish producer afer Egypt. According to Chief Tayo Akingbolagbe, CAFAN president, we produced 370,000 metric tons in year 2016. We will certainly keep increasing the output all things being equal because our population is growing exponentially and no hope is coming from capture fisheries which keeps decline day in day out due to mostly anthropogenic factors.
To the best of my knowledge, every technological innovation should be sustainable in economic, social and environment and catfish industry is not left out. Since the inception of the industry in Nigeria some 70 years ago, the pioneer fathers have been facing with one challenges or the others which ranges from production technical know how, poor seed, poor and expensive feed, market to mention but a few.
Though, our production is growing yearly but it is not a sustainable growth in all ramifications and this is largely due to neglect from the side of the governments over the time. When, we were in the school we were thought capture fisheries regulations and policy in Nigeria but non in aquaculture. The recent happenings in Nigeria clearly indicates that local producers are not in the control of the industry because some other external forces dictates what should happen at any point in time.
I am putting this up to bring in my view based on field and professional experience I have aquired over the time and to look in to possible ways we can sustain the industry and make the small and local producers remain in the industry.
How did it start?
At the inception of the catfish industry in Nigeria, history made us known that they majorly practiced extensive production system where the fish were only fed occasionally and the producers mainly relied on pond fertilization to boost primary productivity in the pond which subsequently make natural food available for the fish. No doubt, we all know that this system couldn't have taken us to this production level because the output will be extremely low and it won't be commercially wise. As time goes on, there was a clear reason to increase production due to the fish economic viability and more people were coming in and this prompted some smart business men to begin to import inputs , that was the source of our problems. They could have looked inward and developed local inputs especially feed which accounts for almost 80% of production cost.
Hence, they leave us with no options than to spend almost 90% of our total cost of production on foreign inputs. In UAE, as young as their aquaculture industry is, sustainability is their watchword and with the short and long term aquaculture plan they have, they will make exploit. Heavy relie on foreign feed, improper awareness, lack of regulation by both the professional body and government, lack of techinical -know-how, poor makert organization, lack of information on fish processing and preservation are among those challenges we need to tackle to have a sustainable industry.
Our Hatchery
Before now, the pioneer culturists got the seeds from the wild but due to problems associated with this and its inconsistence in supply, the researchers began to look for a way to produce better seeds that will grow fast, free of disease and that will be readily available in large quantity and that lead to the establishment of fish hatchery. Hatchery production in Nigeria has met with a lot of challenges as well. The technical know how, the non availability of good parent stocks, qualitative and quantitative water unavailability, ineffective seed transportation , cannibalism, environmental pollution, inadequate biosecurity, lack of knowledge in breeding program, lack of regulation are the major set backs in our catfish hatchery :
Some years back, people began to learn how to make money from hatchery production but not considering its sustainability. Most people learn through some seminar organizers who know little or nothing on what it takes to run a fish hatchery in a sustainable manner. A quit number of catfish hatcheries today are not helping the industry but rather destroying though the operators are making their money. Indiscriminate use of antibiotics, improper broodstock management, lack of hatchery feeding techniques, poor fish handlings, excessive discharge of nutrient to natural water bodies, poor seed transportation techniques and uneccasary addition of some other additives to either the fish water or the feed are among the factor that is killing our hatchery.
We need to produce viable fish seed that will grow well, disease resistance,good dressing percentage, high feed conversion efficiency at a reasonable cost without damaging our natural environment and be very mindful of the health of the final consumers. We can only achieve this through a thorough and well planned breeding program, good water management, good record keeping, government can also help by making available the manpower to train people on proper ways of operating hatchery and by providing other necessary hatchery materials.
Grow out production
From experience, I discovered that about 5 out of 10 fish farmers ( large,medium or small) pulled out of the business withing the first 5 years of operation and 3 out of the remaining 5 are seasonal farmers. That explains why there are more abandoned ponds than the one in use in Nigeria.
I took my time to examine the causes of the ugly phenomenon and I discovered that people approach fish farming with inadequate knowledge and wrong perspective of getting rich quick. They were either not informed at all or informed wrongly by the so called consultants. Like any other business, growing fish requires proper knowledge about it and planning that must be flexible from time to time. It is a very sensitive business in such a way that a little deviation in operational procedure without corresponding adjustments to correct it can lead to a business crash. We need to see the fish farming as a business that requires planning, coordination,ex
ecution, monitoring, evaluation and other tools that make a typical business succeed.
The bio technical know how is also paramount and this might not be thoroughly understood by everybody and I will advice farmers to rely on teaching and information from a well experienced people who are experts in the field. Existing and potential farmers need to be enlightened and get off the old and outdated information they have been fed with from their mind. I have met a farmer who told me no matter how good the sinking feed could be, it can't be as effective as the worst floating feed. Though, he was talking from his bitter experience about sinking pellet but he failed to understand that the only difference from floating and sinking pellet is their mode of production. A feed composition made into floating pellet can also be made to the sinking pellet. Besides, catfish are naturally benthic feeders though we may not want them to pick the feed beneath rather on water surface which a carefully formulated and well produced sinking pellet will do.
Moreover, most farmers don't keep record in their farms, I mean both financial and production records .So, they can't actually say weither they make profit or not or more often than not, they will tell you they make profit ,so you won't see them as novice. Record keeping is as important as growing fish itself. It helps you track your progress, it makes your evaluation easy, it helps you in taking decision, it helps you financially, it helps you to determine how effective is your production plan, it helps tell about effectiveness of a particular feed, it helps in comparism of one production season with others. Water management, pond management, stock monitoring and evaluation,record keeping, good biosecurity, good feed and feeding techniques among others are necessary to have a bountiful harvest.
Feed and feeding techniques
As we all know that for every 1000 naira spent on production, between 750 to 850 naira goes into the feeding alone. It means that apart from disease outbreaks or flood that can take away all the fish at a time, feed remains the only single input that can result into a serious loss to farmer if not well planned.
Nigerian fish feed production has a huge market opportunity which any reasnab!e investor can put his or her money into. Before now, up to 80 percent of the feed used in feeding catfish in Nigeria are imported. What a large market! I don't want to borther us with figures but I'm very sure that the fish feed production in Nigeria is a billions of naira viable investment opportunity. But why are people not really investing in this or why is it that the local feed producers we have seem not measuring up with the foreign feeds? That will be fully dealt with in the next write up on fish feed production technology in Nigeria.
Farmers need to be enlightened on the needs to adopt local inputs while planning their production. We must be conscious of profit making while growing our dear country economy. Though bad feed produced by inexperienced feed producers who at the same time lack in depth knowledge of fish nutrition are much in the market, that doesn't mean that there are no better ones who are as effective and even better than the foreign feeds. Look carefully for one you will find it.
For the purpose of clarity, let me quckcly discuss the result of a demonstration in our farm. We compared our feed with one of the most expensive foreign feed (permit me not to !mention the name). We stocked 500 pcs of juveniles from our hatchery into two different earthen ponds each. We fed 2 bags of 2mm of vital feed and continued with our feed for 5 months. We fed the foreign feed exclusively for 5 months as well. At the end of 5th month of the trial, we weighted and calculated the standing crop on each pond. We discovered that the one fed with foreign feed has a better total biomass of 783kg while the one fed with our feed and vital has total biomass of 604kg.
We fed 767kg of the foreign feed at average price of 584 naira per kg. It means we spent 767*584=447,928 naira. Then, we fed 30kg of 2mm of vital feed at 454 naira per kg which is 13620 naira. We also fed 768 kg of our feed which is 290 naira (commercial price per kg) and that gave us 222,720 naira. The total cost of feeding on this equalled 13620+222720= 236,340 naira. We sold the ponds at the same price of 720 per kg and we got income as follows: 783*720=563,760 naira. Gross profit on foreign feed exclusively equalled 563,760-447,928= 115,832 naira. Then, income on vital and our feed equalled 604*720=434880 naira and the gross profit stands at 434880-222720=212,160.
It is worthy of notice that , juveniles ,covered net, management cost ,pond preparation cost same amount for both ponds and we put the cost at 40 naira per fish, it means other cost apart from feeding cost on both ponds is 20, 000 naira per pond.
Deducting this from the gross profit, we have net profit of 95,832 naira on foreign feed and 192,160 naira in our feed and vital.
We also discovered that the fish gotten from foreign feed has more fat than the one we fed with our feed. Of course, we all know the consequence of this on the shelf life of the fish, if it is to be proccesed. Also, in some countries, the fish with high fat will command low market as compare to the one with less fat cos consumer want to pay for flesh not fat maybe because of their health.
We used vital feed to create a feeding point for them and to train then on surface feeding before introducing our feed to them.
From the result ,it is cleared that the foreign feed has a better FCR but our feed has a better ecomics return. We should be mindful of the fact that the most expensive feed is not necessarily the best feed and the cheapest feed is not necessarily the worst one.
I must be sincere, depending on foreign feed cannot and will never sustain the industry, we should therefore inculcate the habit of using effective local feed as oppose to the foreign one. We can never be in control when almost 80% of our production cost goes to foreign countries. I will talk more on this on the next write up about feed and feeding techniques.
Also, it is not necessary we all have farms where we grow fish, let some people go into fish feed production with adequate information and technical know how. Let advice potential investors who are willing to have farm to put their money in fish feed production instead of digging the ground every time.
Market, marketing and distribution
Considering the demand and supply figure quoted by both international and local bodies like FAO and FDF. One would think that the fish buyers must have paid long before the fish is ready to be cropped. But reverse is the case, some farmers are selling on credit to the mongers. The claim is that the fish demand is far above the supply but the question we need to ask are these: is catfish the only fish we demand in Nigeria? Definitely No! Is the demand quoted really correct, definitely No! Is the supply actually not more than the figure quoted? Definitely Yes! Even, the demand in question, is it an effective demand ( the amount of commodity the consumers are willing to pay for at a given price in a particular period of time) ? Definitely No!
Therefore, anytime we are trying to talk about the demand of fish in Nigeria, let be specific, is it total demand of fish or catfish, is the demand actually an effective one, are the supply of catfish not going above the demand already.
Meanwhile, I'm not saying catfish doesn't have a viable !market in Nigeria ,what I'm saying is that we should be careful when using demand and supply figure of all the species of fish from aquaculture, capture fisheries and imported fish for catfish only. We cannnot all demand catfish alone in Nigeria. Even largest percentage of catfish in Nigeria is been consumed by few population especially fresh one. There might be a need for taste development, enlighten people on its nutritional benefit, making it readily available at affordable price to consumers so we have have more of them.
One of the problems facing by small and medium scale farmers is their inability to sell their produce as at when due at a calculated profitable price. Its been a problem over the years and I think its going to continue unless we come to understanding of value chain opportunity in aquaculture. Nothing less than 80% of those who involve in aquaculture as a long chain business concentrated only on growing fish. The consequence of this will be more supply than needed in a particular area at a given period. We need to diversify, let not all produce table fish, let some people produce good feed, let some people produce broodstock, let's some run hatchery, let some produce smoke fish, let some do marketing, let some people sell inputs like nets and chemicals, let's fill up the value chain with evenly distributed proportion instead of skewed to growing fish alone. For instance, here in Ede, we have quit number of farmers and hatchery operators and all of us go to Osogbo to buy ordinary covered net. Even, in Oshogbo, where to get that is not more than two or three places. People in sanngo Otta have to traveled down to Oko oba in Agege to do the milling or get other inputs. We neglect the basic needs to get finished product and all put our money in production, it can't work. When we diversify, it will definitely reduce the total output cos the number of producers has reduced ,hence there will be more value in the output. Let try to research an area very well, evaluate the resources at hand and make a decision on any other area aside growing fish. For instance, your initial plan was to rear fish to grow out but you don't have ponds or where you get pond is far from where you reside or maybe the pond is prone to flood. You can decide to invest your money on fish processing with lesser amount you intend to invest in growing fish before. I don't know if we notice that smoke fish is commanding more market and better price recently. All you need to do is to look out for information that will help you with your plan though it might not be free.
The most recent development in Nigeria catfish industry is the invasion of big players both indegenious and multinational. They have done their feasibility study and understood that the opportunity in our catfish industry is underutilized or so to say misuse especially by our government. Therefore, they invaded us (local farmers) with their state of heart system of production and we begin to smell the downfall of local farmers who will not adjust to the development. They have a lot of advantage over us, yes they do. First is that, government knows about their establishment and it is making money and gaining political popularity from them. You will hear Oyo state government has collaborated with an Indian company to produce so so tons of fish annually. Then, they will enjoy the benefit of economy of scale, they will see money to borrow, they collaborate with each other to form a formidable team eg Skreting Nigeria and Durante. They make use of the best experts in the field, they produce better quality, they produce size that command premium market and price and so on. The resultant effect of all these advantages is low cost of production and more market gain which will result into lower sale cost especially in a competitive market like ours. I have said it times without number no one will stop somebody from sellings at his desired price cos law allows it in Nigeria where we practice free market economy in which the interactive force between demand and supply dictates the price of a given commodity mostly. Besides, I can decide to sell my fish at a lower sale cost than what is obtainable out there if I'm able to produce at a lower cost than my counterpart and that will create a larger market for me and put me at a better position. Though, I've been met with a lot of criticism on this but its a bitter truth. Catfish market is a competitive market where everybody should look for a way to stay and keep developing. Thank God for Glo Nigeria who came to break oligopoly created by the then two telecommunication giants. Who knows a sim card can be given for free with free airtime. That's what competition can do.
Let us make sure that our coming together as local producers is not towards stopping these big players but to fortify ourselves through information sharing, collective purchase of inputs, collective sales of output, allowing expert among us to give their views as we cannot all be experts in this. We must look for ways to produce at lower cost to compete favorably in the market.
Let me quickly talk about the fish buyers, their issue is not as hard and serious as we take it,we need them just the way they need us. They help us complete the production system. The only thing that is giving them better edge over us is that they are very few compare to number of farmers.Just imagine the number of bread sellers you see before you can see a bakery. Let us assume we have buyers who are up to 60% in number of producers, that is 60 buyers to 100 producers, of course ,we all know what that will cause. We must understand that consumers want to eat our produce and it has to get to them through somebody. Let us try to encourage those who might want to join us in this to go into marketing or other areas. I don't have problem with them and I don't join people calling them thief cos they are doing business even though they buy ridiculously from farmers who don't have good production plan on ground.
Let me conclude, our catfish industry has come to stay but we (government and individual) have a lots to do to safe local producers from crashing. We need to have the basics understand of how the industry works, we need to form a non politically influenced organization to press home our demand to the government, we need to seek the help of experts to help us in our planning, we need to stop using foreign input which we have no or little contro over and use local ones, we need to diversify into different areas of aquaculture instead of growing fish alone, we need to practice responsibly, we need to form a cluster getting input together from the same source, we need to produce at cheaper cost, we need to treat aquacultures like a business which requires managerial skills just like biotechinical skills. Our government and stakeholders need to formulate policies that will help small scale producers and that will not put us under the threat of the so call big players.
Goverment can help us to create centralized market where buyer meet with sellers othan than farms. Government should fund researches that will lead to development of better and improved strain, Farmers have to be careful of who they consult for help cos the so called consultants with sugar coated mouth have killed the sprirt of investment in many people . We as well need to look into possibility of rearing other fish species of high economic important, Some patriotic Nigerians are already into tilapia production and the industry is growing rapidly.
Thanks for reading.
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