When I’m not fighting crime, I do fish farming

When police officers were being vetted back in 2015, Charles Owino, amused the panel when he said he was the only solution to the problems affecting the police service and asked them not to be surprised about the millions of shillings in his account.

Owino, now the police spokesperson, further told them to expect more millions in case there would be another vetting this year, as he was planning to make more from his fish farm where he was about to harvest 20,000 tilapias which would sell at Sh250 each.

Back in Sega village in Ugenya, Siaya County where his fish farm is located, Owino is a role model. His love for farming dates back when he was a boy at Ambira Boys High School in Siaya County.

One of the farms is in Sega village where 14 ponds are fully engaged with different ages of tilapia and catfish. Another 18 ponds are situated eight kilometres in the neighbouring Masiro village.

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The ponds lie between the source of spring water and a tributary which feeds River Nzoia. The spring water is then tapped into large reservoirs.

The reservoirs are connected to each of the ponds through underground piping, with each pond having an independent inlet and outlet.

The pipes in each pond has a knob in which another pipe is fitted vertically to control water flowing into the outflow pipe. The one-and-a-half metre long pipe has its upper quarter perforated, in which excess water in the pond seeps through and exit through the outlet to avoid overflow.

To drain out water in the pond, the partially perforated pipe is bent to allow water seep through it into the outlet, hence minimum disturbance to the fish.

And to realise large and quality fish, Owino went for Nile Tilapia from Lake Choga in Uganda, and cross-bred with Zilli Tilapia from Lake Victoria.

“From the two species, we got a good breed which grows faster, and has delayed reproduction, a situation which makes them grow larger,” said Owino, adding that most local tilapia species start breeding at the age of three months.

In some ponds, tilapia is mixed with catfish, while in others, tilapia stay on their own.

Owino says the technology borrowed from Uganda six years ago has helped in curbing high mortality rate in the ponds which was a major challenge.

The man behind the implementation of this technology is Salim Musana, a Ugandan national who previously supplied Owino with fingerlings during his early stages in the trade.

“When we came with the fish, we found that most of the ponds were not well designed. The design of the pond plays an important role in fish farming,” said Salim who holds a Diploma in Fisheries from Entebbe University, Uganda.

Salim is also in charge of training other workers at the farm.

From the 32 ponds, Owino says the farm can supply between 100,000 and 300,000 fingerlings of tilapia and catfish in a single season. A fingerling costs between Sh4 to Sh10 depending on the size. The year has two seasons.

At the Sega site, he has a complete catfish propagation system, in which fingerlings are produced by order. Fish weighing between half a kilo and two kilos are used in the hatching.

A special hormone is used to stimulate the mature female fish to produce eggs. Pituitary gland extracted from one fish is then used to stimulate male fish to produce spermatozoa, which is then used to fertilise the female eggs externally.

The fertilised eggs then produce small fish which are, after three days, transferred to a holding place where they take three weeks before they can be supplied.

“There is more money in doing the fingerlings business than keeping the fish to maturity. But the fingerlings which are not sold are the ones we use to stock our pond, which we later sell for food when they attain three months of age to a maximum of six months,” Owino adds.

The technology, he says, has seen him harvest tilapia weighing between 500grams to one kilo, within the three to six months, a situation which is not common in farmed fish.

Finding market for his fish has been his greatest challenge as his greatest clients are small-holder farmers who aren’t able to make big orders at ago.

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