Chi Farms trains 1000 fish farmers

CHI Farms Limited has successfully concluded the training and certification of a pilot group of smallholder fish farmers.

A group of 22 women was trained in ‘Best Practices in Professional Fish Farming’ at one of Chi Farm’s catfish hatchery sites in Sagamu, Ogun State.

The Aquaculture Client Focus Team of Chi Farms trained the women in areas such as pond preparation, water management, record keeping and fish farming as a business.

Chi Farms also signed partnership agreements with all fish farmers to assure supply of high quality catfish juveniles, quality fish feed, and continuous technical support.

Furthermore, the pilot group will cooperate with the agriculture team of Diamond Bank that provides working capital finance for the farmers.

The pilot group are the first 22 farmers out of 500 farmers in the South and 500 farmers in the North of Nigeria that Chi Farms will partner with under a USAID supported technical assistance programme. The objective of the program is to contribute to food security in Nigeria by increasing the local production of affordable food.

Dr Johannes Flosbach from Chi Farms said: “We have visited hundreds of fish farmers in the last months and observed that most of them have pond infrastructure available. Yet, most of the ponds are not in use because farmers are short of working capital, or possibly do not have the professional knowledge to manage catfish farming in a profitable matter.”

As part of the programme, Chi Farms will also buy back table size catfish from associated farmers and make it available in major markets.

“The quantities of catfish we produce and supply to local markets under this programme will measurably increase availability and affordability of food,” said Martin Middernacht, Executive Director at Chi Farms Limited.