Chi Farms commences training for 1000 fish farmers

Chi Farms Limited has successfully concluded training and certification of a pilot group of women fish farmers in Ogun state.

The Aquaculture Client Focus Team of the organisation had trained a group of 22 women in areas such as pond preparation, water management, record keeping and fish farming as a business.

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 United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported technical assistance program.

The objective of the programme is to contribute to food security in Nigeria by increasing the local production of affordable food. The pilot group will cooperate with the agriculture team of Diamond Bank that provides working capital finance for the farmers.

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.

According to the Manager Chi Farms Limited, Dr. Johannes Flosbach, “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.” 

The Executive Director at Chi Farms Ltd, Martin Middernacht, however noted that as part of the program, 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 program will measurably increase availability and affordability of food” he stated.