Extent of Small Scale Fish Farming in Three Districts of Lusaka Province

Abstract

A study on the Extent of small scale fish farming in three Districts of Lusaka Province was conducted between June and July 2014. Questionnaires were used to collect data, from 30% of the total number of fish farmers interviewed. The data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS. Findings of the study indicated that most fish farmers had few ponds with a stocking density of 3fish/m2. Almost 60% of the farmers purchased their indigenous fingerlings from Government fish farms, while Oreochromis niloticus was procured from private fish farms. Furthermore, about 95% of the respondents relied on the seller’s advice to assess the quality of fingerlings. Results of this study have also shown that, these farmers were more dependent on natural food, which was as a result of fertilization using organic manure. Most of the respondents fertilized their ponds twice per cycle with either chicken/duck or Pig manure. It was alleged that compounded or complete feed was very expensive, such that the majority of them fed their fish only once per day, hence, low fish productivity. As such only 2.5% of the farmers were producing between 5,000kg and 10,000kg of fish per cycle, with an average income of K10, 000.00, which was equivalent to approximately $900.00. The majority of farmers (95%) produced in the range of 200g to 400g, weight of individual fish. In the same vein, the government was accused of not offering any incentives such as loans to farmers to purchase machinery and inputs to boost their production. It was further established that 97% of the respondents bought their feed from National Milling and only a partly 3% purchased theirs from Tiger Animal Feed.