Fish farmers are underutilising Nigeria’s dams -TADAN

The Tilapia Aquaculture Developers Association of Nigeria (TADAN) said on Tuesday that dams in the country were underutilised by fish farmers, especially the tilapia farmers, because culturing the fish required space.
TADAN’s National President, Mr Remi Ahmed, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that it was cheaper and healthier to culture tilapia fish in natural dams and lakes.
Ahmed said that ponds built in urban areas are more expensive to run and aerate (to supply oxygen and expose to fresh air) because tilapia needs more oxygen than catfish.
``Fish generally needs lots of water, especially tilapia, which thrives very well in spacious water because it requires a lot of space.
``Where you can keep as many as 350 catfish per cubic meter, you cannot do that for tilapia because for that species of fish, the highest is about 200 per cubic meter.
``We have been talking about dams and artificial lakes, because the urban aquaculture we are doing presently does not favour anybody because it is too expensive.
``It is difficult to get four milligrams per litre of oxygen, if you aerate for 24 hours in urban areas, but you can get twice of that from dams,’’ he said.
The official said that farmers would not spend any money to generate electricity supply, if they made use of dams available like their counterparts in Ghana.
``I have my hatcheries here in Lagos; I spend a lot of money to pump water and to aerate the system.
``However, I have my farm in Ikere, Iseyin Local Government Area of Oyo State, and I do not pay anything for electricity.
``When I showed my results to my counterparts in Ghana, they said I got in six months what they can get for one year.
``In Oyo, we have over 28 dams unused by our farmers, and it is cheaper to rear your fish there,’’ Ahmed said.
He, however, encouraged farmers to form cooperatives that will come together in clusters, around these dams, just as they have in Ghana.
NAN reports that TADAN was set to embark on a six-day industry tour of Ghana from Aug. 29 to Sept. 3.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Re
Read more

NEGPRO project can create more jobs with inclusion of meat production— Badmus

•Tuns Farm leads food safety, quality system audit The Chairman , Tuns Farms Nigeria, Asiwaju Olatunde Badmus, has disclosed that the proposed one million jobs expected to be created through the National Egg Production Scheme (NEGPRO) can be doubled if extended to meat production. He made this known when a team from the office of the Vice President, Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Education at the company’s headquarters in Osogbo, the Osun state capital recently. Olatunde Badmus, while sharing the company’s experience on chicken inclusion in the Osun state’s school meal program which the company has been handling since the introduction of the school feeding program four years ago, said they can achieve so much more in terms of job creation through meat production “As we speak, six state governors among who are Kebbi and Borno, have signalled their government’s preparedness to look into this and have invited TUNS farm to their states to discuss modalities for
Read more