Fish Farmers Reap Bountiful Harvest

The Lagos State Fadama 111 Project recorded another success this week when fish sellers gathered to showcase their harvest at the Ota Beach, Agbowa, Ikosi, in Ikosi–Ejinrin Local Council Development Area.

Speaking at the event, the state project coordinator of FADAMA, Dr. Olayiwola Onasanya explained that the programme was aimed at taking care of fish farmers.

“The coming of this project has boosted the economic power of fish farmers in the state. Simisola fish farmers are one of the many aqua-culture fish farmers we have been supporting since the inception of this project. We gave them inputs like feeds, nets and cages, among others, to improve their business and we are happy that they are today reaping a bountiful harvest.

“As part of the need to constantly make an impact in their lives, we are also giving them advisory services on how to improve their business. And it’s not only this, we shall soon train them on book keeping to enhnace their skills on proper recording of sales and profit. I want to appeal to fish farmers in the state to utilise whatever incentives that government is giving them so as to get more,”he said.

Chairman, Simisola Fadama Users Group (FUG), Mr.Adeniyi Mekuleyi, expressed gratitude to the leadership of the agricultural agency.

“We want to thank the Lagos State Fadama office for supporting us with four fishing cages and feeds which have no doubt led to a corresponding increase in the harvest recorded by our group. We have also been trained by the agency on how to sort the fishes to quicken their growth and this has indeed improved our business.

“Today, the biggest fish we sold weighed about 5 kilogramme. Not many would believe the fishes had only spent about four months in the water where we are breeding them.We now have over 12,000 fishes out of which over 1,000 pieces have just been bought by market women and we are still hoping to sell more,” he stated.

—Paul Sanusi