By Laudia Sawer
Tema, March 20, GNA – Mr King Kofi Faska, a catfish farmer and entrepreneur, has said that catfish farming has a lot of prospects as its consumption is on the increase.
Mr Faska said in recent times demand for catfish had increased sharply with some orders exceeding five tonnes.
He said as a business management graduate, who could not find any public sector job after completing the university, he ventured into catfish farming as a hobby.
“I like catering for the fish now it has, however, turned out to be a very lucrative business.”
Mr Faska stated in an interview as part of the media platform dubbed “Blue Gold: Ghana’s Economic Transformer,” initiated by the Ghana News Agency, to engage with stakeholders in the blue economy.
Mr. Faska noted that apart from providing jobs for the teeming unemployed youth, catfish farming also had the potential of meeting the nutritional needs of the country.
“Of late the pressure is on us. People are demanding catfish. There is a high demand for catfish now, at a point in time, the demand was extremely low,” he said.
He said now there are fantasy points for choose and kill for catfish while grilling points were also sprinkling up, adding that others also smoked it for exportation to clients outside Ghana.
Mr Faska indicated that catfish farming could be done in pools built with cement blocks, tarpaulin pools, as well as dugouts as they could easily survive in such areas compared to tilapias which were sensitive.
He said with about GHS10,000.00 one could have a large tarpaulin pool about 1,000 juvenile catfishes, and many sizes of feed to start a fish farm.
He said catfish feeds range from two millimetres to eight millimetres for the survival of the fish through the various stages of growth.
He said access to a water source was important as the water must be changed in at least four to five days intervals as the feed, and faeces of the fish in the water could lead to the presence of ammonia, causing the fish to come to the surface of the water to breathe.
He said the discharged water from the pond could be used to water plants as it contained a lot of nutrients to boost the yields.
He said those who have challenges with water could also make use of the recirculation system to reduce the ammonia toxicity through biofiltration.
Stakeholder in the fisheries sector, including the National Fisheries Association of Ghana (NAFAG), has over the years expressed worry at the over-exploitation and depletion of Ghana’s fishery resources.
They said the depletion had negative economic and social consequences for the country as well as for nutrition, and food security.
GNA