Don overcomes poll violence effects to export fingerlings

Fish fingerling breeders work at the Mwea Aquafish Farm in Kirinyaga County owned by Dr Charles Ngugi (inset), a fish scientist. (PHOTO: MUNENE KAMAU/ STANDARD)

When the 2007/08 post-election violence broke out, Charles Ngugi and his wife fled their home in Burnt Forest with only the clothes they had on.

Up to the time of the skirmishes in which about 1,300 people were killed, Dr Ngugi (pictured) would commute comfortably to and from Moi University, Eldoret, where he had been a lecturer for 25 years.

The following year, however, fortune smiled on the Doctor of Philosophy in Fish Biology, when he spotted land lying fallow at the banks of Nyamindi River in Mwea, Kirinyaga County.

“I saw an unexploited gold mine and, on making enquiries, was told the owner of the eight-and-a-half acres was desperate to sell it, since most of it was marshy and unfit for any gainful agricultural activity,” he tells Smart Harvest.

Ngugi says he could not wait to pay for the land as soon as possible.

The year was 2009 when the Mwea Aquafish Farm was established and little did Ngugi know that it would become a research farm for university students studying Fish Biology and a source of certified fingerlings for farmers.

The don, who depends on interns to carry out the fish farming activities (breeding of fingerlings), says during President Mwai Kibaki’s final term in office, an Economic Stimulus Program (ESP) for fish farming was introduced and he took advantage of it due to his vast knowledge in aquaculture.

“My farm was immediately selected as a breeding site for certified fingerlings where farmers from all corners of the country would come and buy the tilapia and cart fish species,” he says.

Today, Ngugi is among the leading exporters of fingerlings to various farmers in the East African region. On average, he sells about 120,000 fingerlings per month.

“Fish farmers from various parts of Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda come to our farm for certified fingerlings. We ensure the creatures survive by making follow ups to individual farmers,” he says.

Ngugi says such foreign farmers require specialised attention in extension services and his staffers are always ready to provide such technical support.

“Going by the number of new farmers who come for the fingerlings, we are certain the technical support we provide is appreciated, otherwise no one would be coming for more of the breeds from our farm,” he says.

Ngugi previously served as a Fisheries Officer at the Sagana Fish Research Centre for 10 years, three years as a Fisheries Secretary and four years as a lecturer at Kenyatta University. He has since retired and specialises in farmer training and provision of extension services on fish farming.

Aged 60, Dr Ngugi has become a role model in Kirinyaga County after he successfully transformed a neglected marshy land into a money minting enterprise.

President Kibaki crowned him Elder of the Burning Spear (EBS) for his distinguished efforts to transform fish farming into a valuable venture.

The fingerlings are sold at the age of one month at Sh7 to Sh10 for each tilapia or catfish. Farmers buy and transport them in special transparent plastic bags with water enriched with oxygen.

“The fingerings are able to endure the oxygen-rich water in the plastic bags for a maximum of 24 hours before they exhaust it and there is nowhere in Kenya a farmer cannot transport them within that time span,” says Charles Chege, the farm manager.

Chege has a Bachelor’s degree in Fish and Aqua Science from Moi University, hence his ability to manage the facility and also cope with the many undergraduates who seek for internships, as well as researchers.

The farm is only second to the government-owned Sagana Fish and Aquaculture Research Centre in the country and Ngugi intends to go a notch higher until farmers fully switch to this yet to be exploited multimillion-shilling venture.

He encourages farmers wishing to start fingerling breeding to visit his farm and learn the required skills, since demand for the young fish is higher than supply.

“Fish farming is such a lucrative business if well managed and I want to encourage our farmers to venture into it in large numbers,” he says.

Ngugi adds that a single tilapia fish reared for only six months retails at between Sh350 and Sh450, depending on the market.

“The same fish is then sold at Sh1,500 in hotels after value addition and as demand continues to outstrip supply, our farmers should wake up and fill up this gap,” he says.

Ngugi says if farmers ventured into aquaculture in large numbers, there would be no need for Chinese to bring their fish here.

He says the country’s fish production potential was so high that if farmers took the venture seriously, they would become exporters to various parts of the world.