Individual farmers
4.1 In general, the mission has observed a good potential for fish-farming development in the project area, characterized by good water supply all year round, ample supply of agricultural by-products for direct and indirect feeding and consumers who appreciate fish. The on-going fish-farming project is working at developing this potential, but the necessary conditions for success is to make sure that fish-farmers can benefit economically from their activities.
4.2 Because of poor record keeping, it is difficult at this moment to correctly assess the cost and benefit situation in the project area. Among all districts visited by the mission, the Siaya district was the only one where pond by pond records were still kept. In its assessment of the costs-benefits of fish-farming, the mission had to rely essentially on records and recollections of fish-farmers.
4.3 One of the most striking aspect of the business of fish-farming was the wide variation in the sales prices obtained by the fish-farmers for their harvests (from less than 10 to over 80 K.Sh./kg). This suggests that many farmers have had so far very little control on marketing, a very critical factor of profitability in fish-farming.
4.4 Almost all fish-farmers directly feed their fish with local by-products or animal feed they purchase locally. Such purchases can only be financially justified if ponds are well managed and if farmers can get good prices for their fish through efficient marketing. At this moment, pond management is very poor (partiai harvesting, extended production cycles, erratic feeding ratios, poor fertilizing); as for prices, in most cases, insufficient marketing seems to keep them low.
4.5 Fertilization is seriously underused. Fish-farmers fertilize their ponds but in a generally erratic way. Most have compost cribs but do not fill them properly. Indirect feeding using locally available material, costs nothing in money and is less time consuming than direct feeding, yet could generate yields even higher than the highest ones presently achieved.
4.6 Only two recorded harvests were obtained through male-only fingerlings. Monosex stocking is expensive and will be financially justified for well managed ponds and where sales price is high enough. In the present situation, most farmers are stocking with males and females and thus avoid having to rely on an external source for their fingerlings.
4.7 In most districts, the extension services seem very weak. Many extension workers appear to be new on the job and have little experience and motivation. Fish-farmers cannot achieve good results without the support of an efficient extension system.
4.8 Out of a total of 23 farms, 8 or 35% manage to show a profit on operations. Based on the survey's estimates, only 2 can show a net profit after taking the cost of capital into consideration.
4.9 With the type of yields and financial results now achieved by the group of fish-farmers surveyed, a credit scheme to finance fish-farming development contributes to put beneficiaries in debt.
Fry production centres
4.10 The lack of complete records on a FPC by FPC basis only allows estimates of the cost-benefit of fingerling production within the project. Adequate management would require that a full set of accounts should be kept for each centre.
4.11 Provided that the production figures given by the project reflect actual production. Kibos, Rongo and Chwele FPCs are producing enough fingerlings to show a substantial profit, given the on-going sales price of 2 K.Sh/piece. The Borabu FPC which is producing less than 1/10 of what the other FPCs are doing, is not producing enough to show a profit.
4.12 The fact that most fish-farmers are still stocking their ponds with mixed sex fingerlings harvested from their own ponds raises questions about the role of FPCs in the development of fish-farming. At this moment, they are basically supplying fingerlings for farmers starting in this trade. The other ones are only occasionnally relying on project FPCs for their needs.
4.13 Labour is by far the most important element on the production costs in the FPCs. Staffing should be put under review in order to operate those centres on economic principles.
