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Several business opportunities - component parts of the Integrated Developing Scheme described in Africans, Stop Being Poor! are listed in following table.
| a-
SHEA BUTTER (5,
6, 7,
11, 12,
13)
b- BLUE GOLD (14,
15, 16,
17, 18,
19)
c- FREEZE-DRIED PAPAIN (20,
21, 22
and here)
d-
KENAF (23,
24)
e- VEGETABLE OIL (25,
26, 27,
28)
f- CEREALS (30,
31, 32,
33)
g- FRUITS (34,
35, 36,
37, 38,
39, 40,
42, 43,
44, 45,
46)
h- ESSENTIAL OILS (47,
48, 49,
50, 51,
52)
i- ROOTS & TUBERS (54,
55, 56,
57, 58,
59, 60,
61, 62,
63, 64)
j-
FOWL BREEDING (66,
67, 68,
69, 70,
71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76)
k- FISH FARMING (78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, |
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FISH FARMING AS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY: PART
VII - A SMALL-SCALE POLYCULTURE OPERATION TO BREEDING CATFISH AND TILAPIA
To lower breeding costs in fish farming business it is better to use natural feeding based on vegetable and organic manure. That is what the Chinese had been doing since ages - for more than 3,000 years. In China's countryside, farmers integrate fish, livestock, and crop production. The system recycles resources, reduces organic pollution, and combines fish farming with mulberry cultivation for raising silkworms. The silkworm pupae are used as fish feed, and the worm feces and wastewater from silk processing as pond fertilizers. Pond silt is used as fertilizer for fodder crops, which can in turn be used to feed livestock, poultry, and fish.
Wastes produced by business opportunities listed in above table - and particularly vegetable oils, fruits, cereal's crops and fowl breeding - would provide substantial quantities of organic manure and fertilizers to breed fish keeping feeding costs at low level.
Pig, chicken and duck manures increase fish production more than cow and sheep manure. Animals fed high quality grains produce manure that is better as a fertilizer than those fed diets high in crude fiber. Fresh manure is better than dry manure. Finely-divided manures provide more surface area for the growth of microorganisms and produce better results than large clumps of manure.
Manure should be distributed evenly over the pond surface area. Large accumulations of manure on the pond bottom produce low oxygen conditions in the sediment that reduce microbial activity and sometimes result in the sudden release of toxic chemicals into the water.[Source]
However, such kind of alimentation (particularly vegetable wastes, poultry wastes and livestock manure) yield fish that has a particular muddy smell. Further, such a feeding may have a fatal impact on the rate of dead fish present in the breeding pond if livestock and poultry suffered a break of disease. So it is wiser to have (in addition to organic manure and fertilizer) a feeding composition based on Oil cake, which cost had been here reported.That way the muddy smelling of the final product would be reduced, and also the dead rate of mature fish.
- BRIEFS ABOUT THE ECONOMICS OF CATFISH AND TILAPIA POLYCULTURE
Fingerlings are stocked into ponds which vary in size ranging from approximately 36 to 200 m2 (in low-input homestead ponds) to 1 ha ponds in extensive commercial pond culture. For intensive pond culture the average pond size is 1000 m2. The average depth of ponds is approximately one meter. Ponds of 1000 m2 are optimal in terms of management, feed utilization and production. Fingerlings are normally stocked into the production ponds at an initial density of 100 000/ ha (10 per sq. meter) but the recommended stocking density varies according to local conditions.
The polyculture of catfish and mixed-sex tilapia to food-size fish, by small-scale Rwandan and Ugandan rural farmers, in 36 to 50 m2 ponds is achieved when catfish are stocked (25 - 35% by numbers) with tilapia at a total stocking density of 1 fish/ m2. Catfish and tilapia are stocked at equal size. In such conditions marketable size for both species is normally reached at the same time (120-150 g for tilapia and 250-450 g for catfish) after 10-12 months; and production in rural polyculture ponds with mixed sex tilapia varies from 2 to 3.5 tons/ha/year.[Source]
One of the most important management practices is to maintain accurate records of stocks growth rates and feed conversion ratios. If you do not have a computerized production system to using the software outlined in the URL / link above outlined, samples should be taken from ponds at approximately 10 - 14 day intervals. This is best achieved with a cast net or small seine net. A random sample of at least 50 fish should be collected of which the mean weight should be determined in order to keep a log for each pond.
Let us consider a small-scale polyculture operation to breed catfish and mixed-sex tilapia to food market size in 10 ponds of 2000 sq. meter each.
Assuming an integrated vertical operation in which fingerlings are produced as here explained and then fattened on the farm and sold as food-size fresh fish.
Considering a initial stocking density (catfish plus mixed-sex tilapia) equals to 8 per one sq. meter, the total number of fingerlings to fatten during 10 months will be: [2000 x 8 x 10] = 160.000 (30% catfish; 70% tilapia); remaining 400,000 fingerlings would be sold to breeders outside the operation.
Based on these operating assumptions and considering all said in previous deliveries [78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84]
we have the following Table that summarizes the operation's economics:
|
US$ |
|
INVESTMENTS
|
Fingerling Production Space Layout: 10 fingerling fattening ponds / 200 sq. meter each; two broodstock pond / 200 sq. meter. Protection nets. Shelters. Small office space. Etc |
51,000 |
| Fattening Earthen-digged Ponds: 10 ponds / 2000 sq. meter each. Borders protection nets. Shelters. Etc |
55,500 |
Other Production Equipment and Inputs: Broodfish acquisition. One pick-up car; 50 barrows; handling equipment, 100 small plastic basins (5 kg content); 150 pairs of plastic gloves. Etc. |
35,500 |
Total investment |
142,000 |
|
OPERATING COSTS
|
Operating Expenses: to producing 560,000 fingerlings and 160,000 mature food-size fish (30% catfish and 70% tilapia) per year as per assumptions and data exposed here |
75,000 |
| PRODUCTION COSTS |
| (per 1,000 fingerlings) = 36,900 US$ divided by 560 = |
66 |
| 48,000 mature catfish that weight each 350 gr. in average. That is 16,800 kg. in total for 14,000 US$ production costs. That gives a production cost per kg. of catfish = |
1.2 |
| 112,000 mature tilapia that weight each 150 gr. in average. That is 16,800 kg. in total for 24,100 US$ production costs. That gives a production cost per kg. of tilapia = |
1.4 |
| GENERATED REVENUES |
| Catfish: 16,800 x 1,8* US$ = |
30,240 |
| Tilapia: 16,800 x 1,6* US$ = |
26,880 |
| Fingerlings: 400,000 x 0,10* US$ = |
97,120 |
| GROSS PROFIT |
| GROSS PROFIT |
22,120 |
One should not forget that Tilapia matures fast and is prolific. Thus operators should closely supervise fattening ponds' population to anticipate the sales of Tilapia.
REMARK*: In table above, a margin of 50% had been applied to the selling price of catfish, 40% to tilapia (and 51% to fingerling) - over respective production costs.
One sees, that it would be better to fatten more fingerlings to food size fish instead of selling fingerlings to other breeders outside the operation. Anyway, the vertical operation would generate profit and be safe from catastrophic loss of production if operators use a computerized supervising system such as Pond Decision Support Systems to closely watch all aspects of the breeding operation.
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