Kenya Fish Farming - Deep inside Mukurweini, Mr George Githaiga, aged 60, has practised mixed farming for many years. A father of seven, he found survival difficult, depending mainly on coffee, a crop whose returns have been poor. To cushion himself from the vagaries of cash crop farming, Mr Githaiga diversified into horticulture, growing mainly french beans, spring onions and other crops in high demand.

He also took up fish farming, which has been rapidly picking up in Nyeri County as more and more people take to eating fish as a healthy and nutritious alternative to red meat.

"I have a series of natural springs on my farm, so I have no problems with obtaining water for my pond," explained the retired primary school teacher, adding that he had started with only one pond so he could learn the tricks of the trade.

He stocked the pond with tilapia and catfish because, while tilapia produce more fingerlings than the pond can sustain, the catfish eat them, controlling their population.

Having started with 1,200 fingerlings, Mr Githaiga estimated the population of adult fish in his pond to be around 2,000.

There is steady local demand for mature fish. Given that one kilo of tilapia or catfish is currently fetching Sh240, Mr Githaiga is not complaining, and said he was able to pay easily for the food fish need to mature rapidly.

"Most of my customers are local people who buy the fish either for home consumption or for resale to other people," he explained.

He relied on extension officers for advice on the technicalities of fish farming.

Such assistance has been of great help to other local farmers, many of who are getting into integrated farming by digging ponds on their land.

They stock them with fingerlings from specialised agencies operating under the fisheries ministry.

Scattered around the county, such ponds are becoming crucial sources of extra income.

At Naro Moru building contractor and mixed farmer Solomon Gitau Wanjohi and his wife Carol have three fish ponds.

A large one contains 4,500 tilapia fingerlings and two small ones each hold around 500 medium-size fish nurtured from fingerlings introduced in May this year.

"We expect to harvest 20,000 fully mature tilapia from the big pond in December," Mr Wanjohi said.

He now plans to reopen a hotel he used to run on his two-acre plot, through which he will sell his fish.

The remaining fish will be sold to the local community, which is developing a taste for fish.

Confident his fish farming will pay off, he is already planning additional ponds.

A short distance from Mr Wanjohi's plot, Mr Peter Gichuru who runs a private primary school on his 10 acres together with his wife Julia Wambui, is also growing potatoes, with 400 sacks recently harvested.

"At the current price of Sh 2,500 per bag, we expect to get at least one million shillings from them," Mr Gichuru said.

In addition the Gichurus have recently diversified into fish farming, beginning with three ponds, two of them recently stocked with 10,000 tilapia fingerlings.

'The school here is itself a ready market for the fish, which will be healthy for the children," Mr Gichuru explained.

The remaining stock should find a ready market at nearby tourist lodges and KWS offices, while a sizeable proportion will be sold to restaurants and retailers in nearby Naro Moru Town.

Apart from relatively small-scale fish farmers in Nyeri County, there are also large-scale ones, some concentrating on trout, which fetches much higher prices.

As the local markets for fish increase, the prospects for farmers look good and already they are starting to market their fish through the middlemen who stalk them.

These middlemen, who have secure markets in places like Nairobi, have in the past taken advantage of the farmers, paying them prices that are way below the ones offered at the fish markets away from the farms.

In the meantime, most fish farmers inside Nyeri County are busy forming themselves into groups in order to strategise on how to reduce their inputs and market their produce collectively, which they know will be more cost-effective.

Ciugu Mwagiru

Daily Nation/06/10/2011