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Local Fish Farming in Cameroon |
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by Enjeck Mbeh Cleopatra | 15-03-2019 05:11
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In the past, Cameroon, a country seated at the gulf of Africa, depended on coastal fishing as the source of fish. In the recent years, lots of ponds, dedicated to farming fish, are springing up in local communities. Now, anyone can set up a pond and begin fish farmers. Well, almost everyone. There are some restrictions in terms of funds, location and knowledge of the craft. In the rural areas of Mbienfebie, a small village located in Mankon, Bamenda, over 10 fish ponds have sprung up in the past year. This is a big deal, because they practice was unknown to the locals until the past couple of years. It is difficult to tell exactly who started the practice. Not that it matters; the practice has been booming. Surrounding mud-bricks houses, one can find bamboo plants peaking at almost every corner. These plants require a swampy environment to grow. These swamps have been around the village for a long time, so it's hard to think that their potential as fish farm locations have not been exploited until now. To find out more about the what it takes to start and run a fish farm, I met up with Zetema N., a young rising fish farmer based in Mbienfebie. He walked me around the area, all too pleased to share the his experience.  Along with his brother, Zetema bought a swamp and set up a pond. The nifty contraption is simple, yet effective. The structure consists of two rectangular shallow wells, with a narrow walking path between them. Running the sides of farm are two pipes, one which brings freshwater in and another which takes waste water out of the pond. Each pond has its fair share of fish. At one point in each well, there is a circular zone flanked with thin wooden poles enclosing a pile of decomposing grass and waste. I was curious about the purpose of this and Zetema filled me in without hesitation: "We call that the 'compost'," he explained. "It's basically a pile of grass and organic waste, and every now and then, we add manure until it. As it decomposes, maggots emerge. The fish feed on the maggots." Maggots aren't the only source of sustenance for the fish. Earthworms, a preferred meal, are hard to come by. Zetema spends FCFA 22,000 (approximately $38) per month on a bag of fish food. He was unable to give the industry name of the feed, which looked like round pellets, but claimed they smell and possibly taste like shrimp.  In Zetema's farm, one well contained a 1000 catfishes and the other 2000. 3000 catfishes in total. Despite the catfish being the aquatic creature of choice, the pond houses 200 tilapias. These tilapias, after reproducing, their small offspring will be food for the catfish. When I got there, the fish were 6 weeks old, and an estimated 15cm long. They had been purchased from a supplier weeks ago for a price of FCFA 125 (22 cents) per fish. The farming will be continue, and they will be ready for market from 6 months to 1 year old, according to Zetema. He has invested a lot into this initiative, in terms of funding, labor and time. When I asked him about how much income he expects, he was optimistic. "This is our first year. We just started. We expect to begin sales by the end of he month. We have about 3000 fish. We expect to sell one for about FCFA2000 (approximately $3.45). You can do the math." It was thrilling to watch the fish feed. When handfuls of the shrimp-y food pellets are thrown into the water, it becomes some sort of a survival-of-the-fittest world. Each fish fights to grab a piece, and those who do not get any can hope to get nourishment from the tilapia offspring or the maggots from the compost.  The fishes get fed twice a day, in the mornings and the evenings. Zetema was done for the day and while he prepared to retreat indoors, I had a few questions for him before the night fell. "What next?" He told me that along with his brother, they are considering forming an NGO, based around the idea of aquaculture. Soon, they plan to seek investors and hopefully get funding. The entire fish farm was based on the existence of the swamp. With climate change and increasing rise in temperature, there is the possibility of the swamp drying out. In fact, the swamp has shrunk in size over the years. I asked Zetema if he and his colleagues in the field worry about climate change and the possible impact on their business. "Yes, we do worry. It is possible the swamp may dry out. If we get funding, we'll consider digging a deeper well a distance away from here, and pumping the water here." I noticed that the waste water from the pond is thrown away. Considering this waste water must contain some level of nitrogen-containing waste, it can be used to farm crop. I suggested to Zetema the possibility of a mutualism between the crop farmers and fish farmers. One where the fish waste is used to grow crops and crop waste is the maggot-growing compost for the fish farms. Zetema promised to research on whether or not such a relationship can be successfully implemented. The future may be uncertain, but the local fish farmers are determined to make it work out. Fish farming maybe a new territory, but it is a fruitful one. |
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6 Comments
Hello Enjeck Mbeh Cleopatra
This is a great report on local fish farming in Cameroon. After reading this report, I can learn about the important elements of Cameroon fish farming and know that if the swamp becomes smaller, it will cause great losses to the future fishery. Not only is there a place to happen, it is an issue that the world should be aware of. I look forward to your more relevant reports and thank you for your great report.
Posted 20-03-2019 22:35
Hi Enjeck,
It is truly exciting to read what you've got for us here. For me, it was really exciting to read what is happening in Cameroon and get to know a new thing - Fish Farming. Since I've never heard of this word before, Fish Farming sounds a bit odd but at the same time, very new to me and based on what you wrote in the report, the method is truly amazing with the change of the environment. I hope this really works out for fish farmers and bring them delight.
This is really good and please tell us more about Cameroon! :)
Louis Mentor
Posted 18-03-2019 12:47
Hello Enjeck Mdeh!
Thank you for such an amazing report.
I really like the way you attached some photos! Those pictures really helped me to understand your report. The most interest thing about your report is that aquaculture(fish farming in ponds) is both affected by environmental changes and also affecting the environments. As it??s a kind of faming, a small change in soils or water can threat its efficiency. Also, they can harm the surrounding environments as aquaculture innately result in high-density waste water. It??s great that you pointed out this and then suggested integrated fish farming. I hope to see whether he started land farming of not in the future. : ) Keep up the good work
Wonhee Mentor
Posted 17-03-2019 11:39
Hello! it is very good to see that people in developing countries care about climate and ecosystem and thanks to those people, the world is a more sustainable place to live.
keep up good work!
greetings from Tbilisi
Posted 17-03-2019 04:01
Hello Enjeck
Thank you for the report. Glad to hear that you visited the fish farming and reported us about it. We do have fish pond in our campus. Due to the deterioration, several human influence it has really impacted the farming system too. I do hope that farmers there would be able to adapt and mitigate with the problems. Integrated fish farming can be a solution to the problem arised.
Keep writing beautiful reports.
Green cheers from Nepal
Yours,
Kushal Naharki
Posted 15-03-2019 17:35
Hello Enjeck
Unhuman activities has completely deteriorated the resources. I am hopeful local fish farmers would find out the solution.
Thank you so much for report.
Green cheers
Posted 15-03-2019 10:13