The second UNDP/FAO project began in January 1973 without a lapse between projects. Due to difficulty in the recruitment of international experts, J.C. Micha, an associate expert with the first project, served as acting director until the arrival of Michel Vincke in June 1973.
Since the first project succeeded in the training of extension agents and intermediate level personnel the present one entitled “Fish Culture Extension” (“Vulgarisation de la Pisciculture”) CAF/72/002 concerns itself primarily with the advancement of rural fish culture in three regions of the country and research to support this effort.
The goals of the second United Nations project are as follows:
To develop a rural extension programme in each of the three regions with 100 functioning ponds in each region at the end of the project.
To train 36 extension agents in three 3-month programmes.
To conduct two short courses for retraining of existing extension agents.
To conduct research in fish production as support of the extension programme.
To conduct a study of the main areas of traditional river and flood plain fishing in the country.
(These last two subjects are not discussed in this paper).
International UN personnel working with the project include a director, an expert in fish culture extension, an associate expert in charge of Clarias research and two UN volunteers responsible for the extension programmes in outlying regions. Much difficulty was encountered in the recruitment of international personnel. The director arrived six months after the beginning of the project and most other members arrived one year later.
National personnel assigned to the project include a co-director, two intermediate level technicians and 16 extension agents; nine agents did not join the project until late 1974.
Three government fish culture stations, one in each region, were assigned to the project by the Water and Forests Department. The 7.5-hectare Landjia fish station at Bangui serves as headquarters of the project, and the 3.5-hectare Bangue station in Bambari and the 1.0-hectare Paya station in Bouar serve to support extension work in their respective outlying regions. The project is also responsible for two small stations in Ippy and Alindao which are supported by the Bambari station. Bouar is some 425 km west of Bangui, and Bambari is located 385 km to the east of Bangui. (See Figure 1.)
Each of the three regions of project activity appears to offer a unique situation. The capital, Bangui, has 216 fish farmers owning 354 ponds. Years ago, a great deal of extension activity occurred in this area, and the majority of ponds now in use were renovated from abandoned ponds built during the 1950's. Problems limiting fish culture extension in this area are diverse. As Bangui is the capital city, the cost of living is high and many fish farmers are employed full time in jobs unrelated to fish culture. This situation and other problems in Bangui make it very difficult to maintain regular contact with farmers.
The high population density in Bangui limits construction of ponds to the outlying, isolated areas resulting in a high degree of theft ranging from petty poaching up to the complete draining of ponds. The solution would appear to lie in organizing the farmers, but efforts to do so have usually failed. One such effort was made to organize twelve farmers to build a small dam to supply their ponds with water. In spite of an investment in materials and the loan of equipment by the project and weekly visits by extension agents, this group of farmers took more than 14 months to build the small earthen dam with a volume of some 150 m3 of earth. They consistantly refused to follow advice, and as a result the dam was recently destroyed because the farmers refused to complete a spillway.
In spite of the problems of working in Bangui, more agricultural by-products are available in this region for feeding fish than in other regions making the potential for high fish productions greatest in Bangui.
The Bambari area is similar to Bangui in that a large number of abandoned ponds existed at the beginning of the project. Difficulty was encountered in extension from farmers owning ponds in or near the town because of a past history of theft; however, few problems occurred with farmers owning ponds in the rural areas. Since Bambari is an important agricultural zone, contact with the farmers during the agricultural season (April-September) is limited. This has been partially solved by permitting use of the motor cycle late in the afternoon enabling contacts to be made after the hours of work, something impossible to do in Bangui because fish farmers have other interests. Several groups of farmers in this area work together in building ponds. The project is working with 159 farmers in the Bambari area with one UN volunteer and one extension agent.
The nearby towns of Alindao and Ippy offer good potential for fish culture. A small station capable of supporting an active extension programme exists in each town, and abandoned ponds are scattered about. Due to lack of agents for extension, the project has only been able to fully start the programme in Alindao where one agent is now permanently installed.
During the first five months of activity in Alindao the agent was fully occupied with renovating and stocking the ponds of the M'Bia station and the construction of three houses for the agent, the night watchman and a combination storehouse/transit house. Although little has been done in extension work a September census showed that 45 fish farmers had renovated 48 ponds with a total area of 52.7 ares (See Table 4).
A history of stealing fish from ponds exists in the area, and since this region is popular for its production of palm wine many ex-fish farmers with ponds near town have chosen to plant raffia palm trees in their abandoned ponds. Nevertheless, there is great potential for development in nearby villages. A local catholic mission has an active community development type extension programme in which fish culture plays an active role. Since the agent is now working full-time in extension, some 100 fish farmers are expected to be involved in fish farming by the end of the year in the Alindao area.
Although an extension agent is not installed permanently in Ippy, monthly visits of seven days each have been started by the volunteer and an agent from Bambari. Initial contacts with farmers in this area indicate a great deal of interest in fish culture, and a September census indicated 30 fish farmers had renovated 30 abandoned ponds with a total area of 35.34 ares. To manage the small fish culture station a watchman has been hired full-time, and two of the six station ponds have been stocked with Tilapia nilotica brood stock as a local source of fingerlings to the farmers. Old records indicate some 130 private ponds were built in the area in the 1950's.
The Bouar area was relatively unaffected by the past ambitious fish culture programme. People in this area were evidently satisfied with fish culture during the first over ambitious programme in the 1950's. As a result the project had its best success in pond construction in this area. Starting with some eleven abandoned ponds in December 1974, interest in fish culture has grown considerably. After nine months work by the UN volunteer and two extension agents, a September census indicated 248 active fish farmers own 288 ponds in the Bouar area. There is a great deal more cooperation among the farmers in building ponds in this area than in Bangui.
Several farmers have ponds surrounded by vegetable gardens enclosed by fences. In such a situation the farmers pay much more attention to their ponds and, consequently, have a greater potential for production. As in Alindao, the Bouar catholic mission has an active community development programme with 15 agents working in nearby villages. The fish culture extension agents have had good collaboration with this mission and are, therefore, able to reach many more farmers. There is no history of fish stealing in the area.
A disadvantage to fish culture extension in Bouar is that in some areas the soil and terrain are poor for pond construction. Bouar is a mountainous and very rocky area with sandy soils. In fact, the government fish culture station itself in Bouar affords a good example of a poor site to build ponds. The station site is steeply sloped and has sandy soils; several ponds have enormous boulders in them. Nevertheless, the station is capable of supporting an active extension programme.
Of the fourteen agents (twelve having completed training in the first UN project) working with the project seven are involved full-time in extension, three in Bangui, two in Bouar, one in Bambari and one in Alindao. The other agents are involved in station management and its related activities. Activities of the extension agents are coordinated by UN volunteers in Bouar and Bambari and by the expert in Bangui.
Essentially, a concentrated effort is made to maintain monthly contact with each new fish farmer in the hope of ensuring a desirable harvest. If such contact can be maintained and the farmers follow the agent's advice, net fish productions exceeding 15 kg/are/6-month production period can be obtained. This equals 3 000 kg/ha/year and is considered good production. However, problems are encountered in achieving this goal, many of which appear to be peculiar to a given area as already mentioned.
The first step for starting fish culture extension in a new area is to make contact with the local officials and keep them informed as the programme develops. Through the local officials opportunities may arise to speak at occasional meetings of village chiefs; other occasions frequently arise at which the officials themselves can support the programme.
The second step involves dividing the area into sections and making a general map of the region. Each agent is assigned one or several sections and an effort is made to set up a schedule so that the agent will always be working in a given section on certain days. Thus, the fish farmers in a given area will know that they can be sure of seeing the extension agent on certain days.
The third step involves making contact with the farmers or potential farmers in each area. This may involve calling meetings in a given quarter of the town for everyone interested in fish culture. Perhaps the first such meeting should be a practical demonstration beside a private pond or at the government fish culture station. A variety of subjects can be discussed ranging from site selection to composting and feeding. An effort should be made to make the demonstration interesting by catching some fish, actually making a compost pile or by feeding different food stuffs found locally. In making contact with farmers the extension agent will probably first help to select a site for a pond and stake it out or offer advice on how to renovate an abandoned pond properly.
In order to facilitate making contact with farmers in a given area, a fish farmer representative is chosen, usually by the extension agent. Such a person should be respected by the other farmers and be easily contacted to spread news of upcoming fish sales, etc.
An essential part of the extension agent's job concerns the collecting of information and maintaining up-to-date records. The agent maintains an information card for each pond with the fish farmer's name and other necessary information as presented in Figure 2. On this card the agent is to note each contact he makes with the farmer with comments on problems and advice, as well as stocking and harvest information.
These cards are filed alphabetically in groups according to sections and quarters. The file is maintained at the fish station with easy access by the extension agents. The merits of such a file are obvious. It serves in collecting production data on rural fish production; this data is indispensible in evaluating the advancement of the programme. The file serves as a quick reference for the situation on any given pond; it also serves for an up-to-date census of fish farmers, number of ponds and pond areas. Certain significant problems have been solved through use of the information cards.
For example, most fish farmers do not understand that stocking is done in relation to pond area. They feel that the more fingerlings they stock the better. In the past some farmers were found to have requested and received fingerlings several times during a production period resulting in overstocking and stunting of their fish. The extension agents were not able to detect such multiple stockings previously due to lack of an organized data collecting system. Under the present card system, when an agent receives a request for fingerlings from a farmer he simply checks the file to confirm that the pond is not already stocked.
Other information kept on the card includes costs and man days of work required in pond construction and/or renovation. Such economic information is extremely necessary in evaluating an extension programme.
As a reminder for making monthly contact with each farmer each extension agent carries a check list of the farmers in his sections. To facilitate keeping up with pond drainings a calendar is maintained.
A variety of services are offered through the extension programme aimed at establishing close rapport between the agents and the farmers. The long-range goal of the extension programme is to establish rural fish farming as a self-supporting programme with minimal input from outside sources.
Figure 2
EXAMPLE OF INFORMATION CARD MAINTAINED FOR EACH FISH POND IN THE UN/FAO FISH CULTURE EXTENSION PROGRAMME. BANGUI 1975
| Name: - - - - - - - | Section: Boy Rabe | ||
| Pond Dimensions (m): 13.7 × 11.1 | Quarter: Lando | ||
| Pond Area: 1.52 ares | Date: 7 March 1974 | ||
| Notes/contact: | |||
| 7/3/74 | - | Contact - discussed cleaning up abandoned pond and canal for water supply. | |
| 15/3/74 | - | Contact - the pond is well prepared for stocking. The small stream below the pond needs to be cleaned out to avoid inundation. Six-man days work for renovation. | |
| 20/3/74 | - | Stocking - Three kilogrammes of fingerlings at 10 grammes mean weight. Reminded farmer to clean out stream to avoid inundation. Discussed feeding termites and millet beer wastes. | |
| 21/4/74 | - | Contacted farmers son. Left instructions for composting. Evidence of feeding termites. | |
| 23/4/74 | - | Demonstration on composting. Six other farmers attended. | |
| 27/5/74 | - | Nice bloom present, fish appear to be about 40 grammes and feeding well. | |
| 15/7/74 | - | Bad storm flooded two ponds down stream but this pond was not flooded because of cleaned out stream beside it. Fixed draining date 25/8/74. | |
| 20/8/74 | - | Confirmed draining date for 25/8/74. | |
| 25/8/74 | - | Draining - 171 days production: 14 kg Tilapia at 75 g 7 kg fingerlings at 15 g | |
Through use of small motor cycles the extension agents are to maintain monthly contact with each farmer. These visits should be made with the farmer to his pond (s) where observations are made and advice is offered for the continued advancement of fish production. Notes are made concerning such visits on the information cards.
Fingerling Tilapia nilotica are sold to the Bangui farmers at 150 F CFA/kg. In Bouar and Bambari farmers pay 100 F CFA/kg. The preferred stocking density is two fingerlings/m2 (20 000/ha). Requests for fingerlings are taken by the extension agent from the local representative or the farmers themselves, and an inspection of the pond is made prior to stocking to ensure that the pond is ready for stocking. For a pond to be considered ready for stocking it must be free of weeds, have an adequate water supply, be protected from flooding and be drainable. It is also preferred that ponds be well constructed with adequate dikes, proper slopes and sufficient depths in the shallows (a minimum of 30 cm depth).
A date is fixed for delivery of fingerlings which usually involves more than one farmer. Money for the fish is collected at delivery. During the first eight months of 1975 the project sold 1 224 kg of T. nilotica fingerlings to farmers (Table 5).
A proper stocking density of T. nilotica for use in extension ponds has not been fixed for the CAR. To develop a proper stocking density for different intensities of culture in extension work, fingerlings are presently being stocked at rates ranging from 10 000 to 20 000/ha. Availability and size of fingerlings determine the density a farmer receives. Fingerlings sold to the farmers range from five to fifteen grammes in weight.
In an effort to introduce new techniques to the farmers, demonstrations are organized both at the fish culture stations and at farmers' ponds. Certain subjects such as pigsty construction or pond construction may best be discussed at the station, but most subjects such as feeding or composting are more appreciated through demonstrations held at a farmer's pond.
If demonstrations are to be successful, planning and organization are required on the agent's part. The site of the demonstration is important. A pond belonging to a representative may be desirable. It should be centrally located, and farmers in the area should be alerted in advance. The farmer might be asked to help with the demonstration. For example, in preparation for a demonstration on composting the farmer could cut wood stakes for surrounding the compost. He could also help collect different compost materials such as manures, dried grass and agricultural by-products.
For the demonstration, the extension agent should have a subject for discussion. An effort should be made to ensure that the farmers grasp the essentials of the demonstration. The agent can perhaps ask questions to the farmers, “what is compost?”, “why use compost in ponds?”, then answer the questions. Simple comparisons can be made. For example, a pond is similar to a vegetable garden; rich soil or water ensures better production.
The importance of demonstrations is all too often overlooked. The farmers need to have confidence in the extension agent and the new methods he introduces. A good presentation at a well-planned, stimulating demonstration by an agent not only helps create confidence but helps unite farmers into a competitive group. Application of techniques by farmers who attended the demonstration is a positive result of demonstrations.
In general, techniques applied in extension are aimed at upgrading basic pond management and encouraging composting and feeding practices to increase production.
Many problems are related to poor site selection and poor construction on the farmer's part. For example, ponds located in the flood zone of a stream are bound to be inundated, resulting in destruction of dikes and loss of fish. Although the extension agents offer good advice on pond construction, little can be done if the farmer waits until his pond is finished to contact the agent. Many such farmers build “bathtub” size ponds as small as 28 m2. But the agents refuse to stock such so called “ponds” and an effort is being made to limit the minimum size of a pond to 100 m2. Closer contact by the agents with the local representative and the farmers is a step in the right direction to solve this problem.
The techniques of proper pond management are continually stressed. One common problem concerns aquatic weed control. This is mainly a problem in poorly constructed ponds with insufficient depths in the shallows. Initially agents stress manual removal of such weeds and once the pond is drained it should be deepened.
The technique of composting is very important to apply in extension due to the “unavailability” of high-cost inorganic fertilizers to farmers and the limited supply of food stuffs. Ingredients for compost are found everywhere. Manure sometimes pose a problem but any animal manure will be adequate. Sources of manure include cows, hourses, pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, ducks and doves. Other ingredients for use in compost include cottonseed, beer wastes, mill sweepings, millet chaff, rice bran, spoiled meats, bones, soaking of manioc, manioc peelings, plant leaves such as manioc, fruits, ignam peeling, table scraps and dried grasses. Compost piles are made in layers of ingredients - a layer of manure, a layer of cotton seed, a layer of dried grass, a layer of manure and so on. The key to composting is regular addition of ingredients to compost piles.
Feeding is another technique stressed in extension. Although feed stuffs are limited in availability many farmers find enough agricultural byproducts to feed their fish regularly. The best productions are obtained by farmers who feed the fish heavily and have rich blooms in their ponds. Heavy blooms can be said to be the key to production of Tilapia. Most farmers in the Bangui area feed beer waste from the MOCAF brewery; this byproduct is obtained free. Other feeds used in the country include peanut cake, sesame cake, cotton seed cake, cotton seed meal, rice bran, cow blood, cow stomach contents, spoiled meat, corn, millet, spoiled foods, manioc leaves and termites. Frequency of feeding is very important. Farmers who feed daily, consistently obtain better fish production.
Other techniques applied concern regular pond maintainance, production from inundations by maintaining the nearby stream bed open and the control of fishing by pond owners. Some farmers heavily fish their ponds throughout the production period, then claim their fish were stolon when their pond is drained with poor results.
Where the need is evident, assistance may be given to conscientious fish farmers in the loan of tools such as shovels, picks, hand earth packers and wheelbarrows. Good pond construction is, unfortunately, the exception and not the rule among rural ponds, so when a farmer comes to us for help in pond construction we may lend him tools. However, this extension service is practically limited to Bangui as tools are in short supply at the other project stations. To control the loan of tools the farmer is asked to sign a letter agreeing to return the tools in good order.
A most important time for the extension agents to be in contact with the farmers is at pond drainings. The agent can speed up the process and show the farmer how to save sufficient fingerlings for restocking his pond at no expense. Each agent carries a small spring scale at pond drainings and the fish are sorted into groups and weighed. Thus, the farmer knows how many kilogrammes of fish he harvests. Obviously, the presence of the agent at harvest ensures the collection of data vital to improvement of the farmers fish production and the entire extension programme.
Unfortunately, many fish farmers are reluctant to have the extension agent assist at their pond drainings; they may associate the extension agent with taxes. Also many farmers refuse to drain their ponds after a desirable six months production, not realizing that under local conditions a straight monospecies culture of T. nilotica may lead to overpopulation and stunting. Present efforts to change this situation include repeated contacts with farmers just prior to pond draining.
The UN fish culture extension programme was started in the Bangui area in 1973 by J.C. Micha who managed it, until October 1973. Pierre Gomna and Michel Vincke continued the programme until June 1974 with the arrival of James Miller the fish culture extension advisor. The development of this programme is traced in Table 3.
The extension programme was begun in early 1975 in the Bouar and Bambari areas. Starting with only evelen abandoned ponds in Bouar and 137 abandoned ponds in Bambari, a spectacular development of fish culture occurred in these areas during the first nine months of the year. Table 4 presents the latest census of private farming for all areas of UN project involvement in the CAR.
| DATE OF CENSUS | BY | FISH FARMERS | PONDS | |||
| Number | Increase (%) | Number | Increase (%) | Area (ares) | ||
| 15/9/73 | Micha | 51 | - | 99 | - | 540.70 |
| 14/11/73 | Vincke/Gomma | 74 | 45.0 | 132 | 33.3 | 585.19 |
| 2/4/74 | " | 90 | 21.6 | 159 | 20.4 | 645.45 |
| 2/5/74 | " | 98 | 8.8 | 171 | 7.5 | 663.46 |
| 27/7/74 | Miller | 167 | 70.4 | 243 | 42.1 | 817.76 |
| 31/12/74 | " | 187 | 11.9 | 295 | 21.3 | 911.42 |
| 1/4/75 | " | 196 | 4.8 | 305 | 3.3 | 926.25 |
| 30/9/75 | " | 216 | 10.2 | 353 | 15.7 | 1 069.58 |
| REGION | NO OF FISH FARMERS | NO. OF PONDS | POND AREA (ARES) | ||
| Stocked | Total | Stocked | Total | ||
| Bangui | 216 | 194 | 353 | 778.2 | 1 051.9 |
| Bouar | 248 | 145 | 288 | 148.3 | 317.6 |
| Bambari | 159 | 183 | 191 | 151.7 | 158.1 |
| Alindao | 45 | 9 | 48 | 4.7 | 32.7 |
| Ippy | 30 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 35.3 |
| TOTALS | 698 | 531 | 910 | 1 082.9 | 1 595.6 |
The difference between the number of stocked ponds (531) and the total of ponds (910) reflects ponds in some stage of renovation or construction or the lack of money by the farmers with which to purchase fingerlings for their ponds. In part. the number of ponds stocked can be increased through the practice of more demonstrations.
Obviously the original project goal of having a total of 300 functioning ponds has been largely surpassed. It should be stressed, though, that quantity of ponds is of lesser importance than quality of fish culture.
Sale of fingerlings of T. nilotica has been carried out regularly throughout the extension programme in the three regions of project involvement. Over 1 200 kg of fingerlings have been distributed to private farmers during 1975 as presented in Table 5. At a mean weight of 10 g each this represents more than 120 000 fingerlings.
| MONTH | BANGUI (kg) | BOUAR (kg) | BAMBARI (kg) |
| January | - | - | 18.0 |
| February | 199.5 | 29.7 | - |
| March | 45.3 | - | 126.0 |
| April | 165.5 | 59.1 | 36.0 |
| May | 31.0 | 33.1 | 17.0 |
| June | 139.0 | 42.3 | - |
| July | 15.5 | 16.4 | 43.0 |
| August | 158.0 | 15.0 | 38.0 |
| TOTALS | 753.8 | 195.6 | 278.0 |
A study of production results from 63 subsistence ponds from all three regions are summarized in Table 6. A mean production of 2 276 kg/ha/yr (22.7 kg/are/yr) was found and the average pond size was 1.82 ares. Production from these 63 ponds are broken down into three groups based on intensity of management: Group 1 - less then 1 499 kg/ha/yr, 39.7% of the farmers; Group 2 - 1 500-3 999 kg/ha/yr, 46% of the farmers; Group 3 - production exceeding 4 000 kg/ha/yr, 14.3% of the farmers. No sophisticated analysis was required to determine these three groups. As indicated in the footnotes with Table 6, production is directly proportional to intensity of management and feeding. The fact that 46% of the farmers are obtaining reasonable fish production in Group 2 (mean production of 2 498 kg/ha/yr) is impressive. However, this production falls short of a more desirable production at 3 000 kg/ha/yr, as mentioned earlier. In fact, this would offer the farmer 15 kg of fish per are (100 m2) per six-months production period.
Of major interest in any extension programme is economics. On the continent of Africa, however, this is not very easy to analyse, especially in view of the fact that an unemployed, subsistence farmer puts no monetary value on his time. The success of an extension programme should not be judged on a monetary basis alone, especially at the present stage of development. The government view of such a programme should be one of a cheap means of producing a quality food product for consumption in rural areas. A Government subsidy for such an important food industry should be considered a necessity.
To provide information on the economics of small, family fish ponds, a typical case is presented in detail for each of the three groups of fish farmers in Tables 7, 8 and 9. Information in these tables is all based on actual data collected by the FAO fish culture project.
It is evident from the information presented in Tables 7, 8 and 9 that potential to make a profit exists in each of the three groups. It should be noted that the three case studies pres nted are considered family ponds and are not on a commercial scale, even though returns on investment are high for Group 2 and 3 (274% and 285% in six and nine months, respectively). The non-commercial scale of these cases in further emphasized by the relatively low initial investments and management costs. Pond owners in each group employ relatives at only 100 or 130 F CFA/day. Such wages would not be possible on a commercial scale as the minimum wage is about 250 F CFA/day in Bangui and 160 F CFA/day in Bambari.
The value of the fish harvested can be highly variable. The 4.7 kg of fish harvested in Group 1 was valued at 200 F CFA/kg. All of these fish, however, were eaten by the fish farmer's family. But in Groups 2 and 3 fish were sold in piles (not by weight) and true return per kg in Group 2 equals 722 F CFA/kg of fish.
Due to relative small investment in each of the three cases cited, depreciation was not considered in this study. As indicated in Tables 7, 8 and 9 the calculated investment and return per are may be summarized by group as follows:
| Investment/are F CFA | Return/are F CFA | %Return on Investment | Production Period | |
| Group 1 | 3 000 | 1 343 | 44.7 | 5.2 mo |
| Group 2 | 3 646 | 10 000 | 274.0 | 6.0 mo. |
| Group 3 | 3 595 | 10 216 | 284.0 | 8.9 mo |
| REGION | GLOBAL RESULTS | GROUP 12 -1 499 kg/ha/yr | GROUP 23 1 500–3 999 kg/ha/yr | GROUP 34 4 000 + kg/ha/yr | ||||||||
| Mean Production kg/ha/yr | No. of Ponds | Mean Pond Area (are) | Mean Production kg/ha/yr | No. of Ponds | Mean Pond Area (are) | Mean Production kg/ha/yr | No. of Ponds | Mean Pond Area (are) | Mean Production kg/ha/yr | No. of Ponds | Mean Pond Area (are) | |
| Bangui | 2 613 | 35 | 2.49 | 751 | 13 | 2.64 | 2 690 | 15 | 2.29 | 5 904 | 7 | 2.62 |
| Bambari | 2 108 | 20 | 0.88 | 1 083 | 8 | 0.78 | 2 447 | 10 | 1.13 | 4 511 | 2 | 1.04 |
| Bouar | 1 221 | 8 | 1.15 | 534 | 4 | 1.15 | 1 908 | 4 | 1.07 | - | - | - |
| TOTALS AND MEANS | 2 276 | 63 | 1.82 | 823 | 25 | 1.81 | 2 498 | 29 | 1.72 | 5 595 | 9 | 2.27 |
1 Net total production (kg/ha/yr). Results are summarized globally and grouped according to level of production. Two results are not considered in this Table. These results concern a commercial farm with large ponds exceeding50 ares in area.
2 Group 1 - These fish farmers do not maintain their ponds properly and very little feeding is done. This group represents 39.7% of the 63 ponds drained.
3 Group 2 - These fish farmers maintain their ponds well and feed their fish regularly. This group represents 46.0% of the 63 ponds drained.
4 Group 3 - These fish farmers have a large investment in their fish ponds and they feed intensively or grow pigs with fish. This group represents 14.3% of the 63 ponds drained.
Table 7
Group 1
THE ECONOMICS OF A RURAL FAMILY FISH POND PRODUCING
LESS THAN 1 499 kg/ha/yr
POND CONSTRUCTION
FEEDING
MAINTENANCE - Two-man days during production period
PRODUCTION
| INVESTMENT AND COSTS OF OPERATION | ACTUAL COSTS F CFA | PER ARE F CFA |
| Construction cost: | ||
Labour at 100 F CFA/man day | 1 200 | 1 714 |
Materials | 0 | |
| Cost of fingerlings at 100 F CFA/kg | 200 | 286 |
| Cost of labour for feeding, maintenance and draining | 700 | 1 000 |
| TOTAL COSTS | 2 100 | 3 000 |
| RETURNS AT 200 F CFA/KG OF FISH | 940 | 1 343 |
| % RETURN ON INVESTMENT - 44.7% |
Table 8
Group 2
THE ECONOMICS OF A RURAL FAMILY FISH POND PRODUCING
BETWEEN 1 500 AND 3 999 kg/ha/yr
POND CONSTRUCTION
FEEDING/COMPOSTING
MAINTENANCE - 5 man days during production period
PRODUCTION
| INVESTMENT AND COST OF OPERATION | ACTUAL COST F CFA | PER ARE F CFA |
| Construction cost: | ||
Labour at 130 F CFA/day | 6 110 | 2 350 |
Materials | 0 | |
| Cost of fingerlings at 150 F CFA/kg | 900 | 346 |
| Cost of labour and feeding maintenance and draining | 2 470 | 950 |
| TOTAL COSTS | 9 480 | 3 646 |
| ACTUAL VALUE OF FISH (sold by pile and not by weight) | 26 000 | 10 000 |
| %RETURN ON INVESTMENT - 274% | ||
Table 9
Group 3
THE ECONOMICS OF A RURAL FAMILY FISH POND PRODUCING IN
EXCESS OF 4 000 kg/ha/yr
POND CONSTRUCTION
FEEDING/COMPOSTING
MAINTENANCE - 10 man days during production period
PRODUCTION
| INVESTMENT AND COST OF OPERATION | ACTUAL COST F CFA | PER ARE F CFA |
| Construction cost | ||
Labour at 130 F CFA/day | 20 540 | 2 687 |
Materials (1 bag cement & pipe) | 3 000 | |
| Cost of fingerlings at 150 F CFA/kg | 2 625 | 299 |
| Cost of labour for feeding, maintenance and draining | 5 330 | 608 |
| TOTAL COSTS | 31 495 | 3 595 |
| ACTUAL VALUE OF FISH (sold by pile and not by weight) | 89 500 | 10 216 |
| % RETURN ON INVESTMENT - 284% | ||
An attempt is being made to demonstrate that fish culture extension is worth the government's investment. The government pays the extension agents' salaries but sees no direct returns on its investment. Therefore, it is important to be able to fix a monetary value on an extension agent's efforts. Although there are many things to consider, the following simplified situation indicates fish culture extension is economical.
If an extension agent, who earns 360 000 F CFA per year (220 F CFA = U.S.$ 1.00) helps farmers manage 100 one-are ponds that produce an average of 22.7 kg/are/yr (Table 6) the value of the total fish crop (2 270 kg) equals 454 000 F CFA at 200 F/kg. In other words, a 360 000 F CFA/yr extension agent can produce 454 000 F CFA worth of fish/year. This amount can surely be increased up to 60 000 f CFA of fish/year through a more intensive extension programme obtaining an average fish production of 30 kg/are/yr as mentioned earlier
