Transforming One Fish Pond to a Commercial Fish Farm

By Sally Mulambya  

“I realized that there was a deficit of fish through my interactions with different players in the industry as an aquaculture consultant and it is from then that I decided to setup a facility that would contribute to lowering the fish deficit in the country,” he lamented.  

These are the words of Royd Mukonda an aquaculture expert and fish farmer owner of ‘Mukasa Agro-solutionsand Fish Farm’ who has been in the fish farming business for the last three years.

Having worked as an aquaculture consultant and manager of Commercial aquaculture facilities for ten years, Mr. Mukonda decided to setup a commercial hatchery in Kabwe District, 11km behind Mulungushi University on Mulungushi River, a fish farm that has attracted customers across Africa ranging from Angola, Bostwana, Malawi, and Congo among others.

“I breed fish and supply to farmers that are doing fish farming and 75 percent of our customers are Zambians with 25 percent coming from outside the country, we also sell fingerlings for Oreochromis and ersonii or Kafue bream and Catfish fingerlings. We have a dedicated team to attend to every of our needs.”, he said.  

Although his business is steadily growing he laments that his success did not come without challenges as he complained that he faced problems in relation to lack of funding to meet the demand for fingerlings as he could not push the project fast from only 250 fish which he started with and 1 fish pond, coupled with having to run a farm on diesel and solar power which he states is quiet expensive as it is not connected to grid electricity.

“When I started I had no money, but having worked as an aquaculture expert I started offering a paid consultancy service and writing books on aquaculture this earned me a few coins which I invested in the business and bought a farm where I set up 1 pond and increased to three ponds”, Mr. Mukonda explained.

However, despite the few challenges that he dealt with on a daily basis, Royd laments that it is these challenges that led him to developing a few guidelines which he follows that have transformed his farm into a big Business.

According to Mr. Mukonda every fish farmer should invest at least 75 percent of their time into the farm and have a series of protocols to guide them during their daily routine to make work easier, he adds that his main areas of concentration on the farm range from water quality in terms of water quality management, monitoring oxygen, Sex Reversal treatment, temperature levels and egg collection.

He however, noted that hygiene has been key in ensuring that disease outbreak is kept away and should be highly considered by fish farmers.

Despite his busy schedule Royd Mukonda takes time to provide capacity building trainings toot her fish farmers so that the fish deficit is lowered, he explained that he provides extension services as well as construction of ponds for farmers that want to design their farms, adding that he also works with different supervising structures such as ministry of fisheries, universities and world fish.

“We are trying to build a team that has an understanding of the whole production system of aquaculture and offer trainings, that try to put the latest aquaculture technologies which include value addition technology, feeding strategies, latest breeding technologies and also simplified feed supplements.” He explained

Mr. Mukonda said operating the fish farm has sustained him financially as he is able to pay his bills, provide for his family and also pay his workers.

The fish farmer said he is working on an out grower scheme so as to enable other fish farmers learn these strategies and practice how to go about them.

He further added that due to the effect of climate change he has embarked on a project to breed catfish (Imilonge) which are climate resilient because there is currently no breeder for catfish in the country, a project he said has reached an advanced stage on which he is working with experts from east and west Africa to offer knowledge and technical expertise.    

The fish breeder further, urged farmers and would be fish farmers never to venture into fish farming without acquiring basic skills and understanding about aquaculture and evaluate the consultants they are working with before making a decision.

“People that want to venture in fish farming should always consult fully fledged experts in the business who have an understanding of the practice, never follow social media experts who rely on google because you might invest into a business with wrong information and make a lose”, he advised.

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