By Moses Nosike

Part of the solutions to the increasing rate of unemployment in the country is enabling environment to promote SMEs. Government’s attention had been drawn to this direction since it government cannot provide all the jobs for every citizen, there is need for self-employment to promote economic growth. Too, to rid the country of corruption, armed robbery menace and other social vices as a result of unemployment.

However, livestock business has been recommended by agriculturalists, consultants as the easiest means of self-employment that can enrich practitioners since it doesn’t require too much money to invest into it. This edition on livestock offers you the opportunity of learning how to invest into a small scale farming called fish farming.

All over the world, agriculturalists are major promoters of any economy because they create job for themselves and also employ others. They are major suppliers of food products in their families and the society at large, thereby reducing hunger, poverty, unemployment etc.

In Nigeria today, a reliable research source has it that more than thirty million Nigerians are unemployed, this is more than the population in Ghana and other West African countries, even Lagos state.

On this premises, an agricultural consultant, practitioner, managing director, Juvana Farm……….. advises Nigerians to venture into fish farming. He said when you want to rear catfish farming, it requires low set_up capital and it grows rapidly within a short period thereby generating quick and high turnover. Modern fish farm does not need large expanse of land to succeed. If water and land/space like one room apartment is already available, then you don’t have problem starting this project. With the sum of N80,000 one can set up a small scale fish fingerling producing business. What one requires here is a hatching pond of (12ft by 4ft) that can be constructed into a shape of box by any experienced carpenter and plumber with 5 planks, nails and 3×2 woods then lay tarpaulin or thick water-proof material inside the box. Add clean water and start your hatchery activities.

However, if one prefers to go for Grow_out fish farming (raising fingerlings to table sized fish suitable for consumption), it will take about N300,000 to construct a standard concrete fish pond (16ft by 10ft) and stock it with 1,000 fingerlings and feed them till maturity (four to six months) depending on the fish species and age.

“It is advisable to buy fish juveniles of 18 weeks old than fingerlings of six to eight weeks. In addition, you don’t have to depend solely on expensive imported feed, since one can learn to produce local cheap feed.

“Catfish is very reproductive since six females and two males fish Broodstock can give you up to 20,000 fingerlings at a go. I have witnessed 32,700 at once in my farm, if you do not have a place to expand, you can start selling their babies (fingerlings) for N15 per one.

“An undergraduate or somebody who is unemployed can start with this amount and begin to make profits. If you buy them and rear for four to six months, you sell them and make more profits.

“At my farm, I sell fingerlings N15 while juveniles is N25 depending on the species of fish. If well managed, this specie can attain 2- 4kg in five months.

“Catfish is a popular and heavily demanded product. It is traditionally positioned as a semi-luxury product. Although relatively expensive, it is consumed by all classes of people. You don’t have to worry about  marketing your catfish because presently in the country, the level of demand is higher than supply.

I found out that, our academics curricular is not structured to make us business conscious, that is why people don’t understand the concept of private enterprise. After school, it becomes difficult to queue into business ideas. This is the reason why many people are unemployed is because they believe that while in school jobs are waiting for them. It is no more like that today, you have to create jobs for yourself and others.

The aim of every fish farmer is to breed a fish to one kilogramme  body weight or more in the shortest possible time, usually between four and six  months if properly done. Unit price for table sized are broadly N550-N650 per kg at the farm gate, N800-950 at the retail outlet, and N1,300-N1,800 in restaurants depending on the size. One gets more profit if operates a market outlet to cut off  shylock middlemen; I can assure prospective farmers that the profit expected from fish sales from experience is about 40 to 50 percent above what was invested.

According to him the challenges as is in every other business is that people find it difficult to get the fast growing specie of fish, but I am happy to tell you that in my Jovana Farms we have high quality fish fingerlings and Juveniles you can start your fish farming business with. This catfish specie is called HETERO-CLARIAS, I use Hetero-Branchus for crossing and they grow faster and heavier than any other catfish specie. Visit our website: www.jovanafarm.com to know more about fish production

The first challenge I’m faced with involve technicalities. What this means is that people need to go for proper practical training before venturing into the fish farming business. Some people who started the business without the right specie of fish or without practical training have already shut down for lack of appropriate training. They did it as a hobby, and at the end of the day, abandoned the business because of one mistake or the other.