Fish Farming
The New York Times ran an article entitled “Another side of Tilapia, the Perfect Fish Factory” (2.5.11) in which it discusses how Americans eat 475 million pounds of Tilapia which are flown in fresh and frozen from fish farms in Asia and South America. It suggests that this easily breed fish is not necessarily as good as once thought with lower levels of the beneficial Omega 3 fatty acids that dieticians suggest we ought to be eating at least twice a week. This, it is suggested, is because farmed Tilapia are fed corn and soy instead of lake plants and algae, the diet of wild Tilapia. The article goes on to suggest that the farming practices being used are not necessarily up to American standards and that cage lake farming may be detrimental to the environment because of the fish waste pollutants and the poor security in the cages that allow the occasional fish to escape and breed. Calls are going out to ensure that responsible farms can be differentiated from irresponsible one.
The Livingstone Tanzania Trust has built 4 tilapia fish ponds at its demonstration farm in the Waangwaray Primary school in Babati. Many in the community have copied our lead and are also farming tilapia. Babati has a large lake, appropriately called Lake Babati. Aside from the hippos, the lake already has Tilapia as well as catfish. As the human population around the lake and beyond grew the lake started to suffer from over fishing and the local authorities placed a ban on fishing for 6 months of the year. The fishermen, who have no other source of income, could not afford to comply with this ruling and fishing continues all year round. The fish ponds that LTT built on the demonstration farm were in direct response to the growing demand for the fish. The community seeing that fish can be farmed decided to copy our lead and built ponds on their plots, using water from streams on the mountain to irrigate the ponds.
The demonstration ponds quickly filled with algae, our American visitors could not believe that fish could live in such an environment believing that fish needed to be swimming in clear water and were amazed to see healthy fish being caught. The algae, like the algae they eat in the wild improves their diet and improve their levels of Omega 3. The fish also eat fruit, rice pumba and corn feed as well as the algae, the adult male fish tend to also eat the baby fish.
Each year the ponds are emptied and the mud, fish waste, dead baby fish and the rich water are used to improve the fertility of the soil in an area where leaching and soil erosion deplete the soil of minerals. We are growing fantastic tomatoes!!
As for the fish they are sold to the local community and help to enhance their diet. The community rarely get to eat meat and this source of protein is in great demand. Those farming tilapia in the community gain an additional income stream, gain free manure and can eat their own fish to vary their diet. This is a fantastic bonus for people with few income generation sources and food insecurity issues.
As everyone who has ever had a fish tank knows there is a relationship between the size of the tank, the size of the fish and the number of fish. Too many fish in a small area and the fish won’t grow. There is an optimum size and quantity of fish to a predetermined pond size, this optimum number will generate the maximum profitability. It is not in the farmers’ best interest to exceed the number of fish, which is why once the year the pond is emptied and the young left to die and be used as fertilizer or offered as a whitebait substitute to the local school.
We consider the farms that we have built are responsible and sustainable and designed to meet a local demand.
