Why Nigerian farmers are abandoning aquaculture

Nine years after Fezino Farms Limited began operations in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja in 2014, it shut down.

Wale Bello, the manager, explains that a combination of challenges – such as the poor power supply for the pumps, the high cost of feed, the lack of access to loans and funding for expansion, unstable pricing, and increasing cost of petrol and diesel for generators – contributed to the closure of the farm.

“How do we survive?” Bello asks. “The government is not coming to support [with loans].”

Before it shut down in September 2023, Bello explained that the company initially farmed tilapia and had over 70 earthen ponds, each with a capacity of 7,000 fish. However, the business faced its first major challenge when a property company sought to redevelop the area in 2020: Fezino Farms was, according to Bello, one of 60 aquaculture operators in the City Gate area of Abuja to be displaced without compensation.

As a result, the company moved across the city to Gui, establishing four earthen ponds for grow-out with a capacity of 5,000 catfish each and about 20 concrete ponds with a capacity of about 50,000 catfish fingerlings each. On average, this gave the farm between seven and eight tonnes every harvest. But things changed with the increase in feed prices during 2022– caused both by raw material price increases and the increased costs of fuel and transport. By 2023, with costs outweighing revenues, Bello decided to stop production.

Increasing demand

In Nigeria, fish accounts for nearly 40 percent of animal protein intake, and about 3.6 million tonnes of fish are consumed annually in the country. In 2022, according to the FAO, 13,600 people worked in the aquaculture sector, which contributed 28 percent to the total fisheries production, estimated at 1.1 million tonnes.

However, while the West African nation accounts for 52 percent of the total production of farmed fish in sub-Saharan Africa, Nigerian production isn’t even able to meet domestic demand. This reality has forced the country to import about 2.5 million tonnes per year.

Although Nigeria is currently the world’s largest producer of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) and African bonytongue (Heterotis niloticus), experts noted that lack of adequate funding limits fish farmers’ abilities to expand.

“Funding is a major challenge facing our people. Most fish farmers do not have adequate funding for [fish farming] projects. Some go into it and run away after one or two seasons,” explains Olawumi Fapohunda, a professor of Aquaculture at Ekiti State University (EKSU). “Nobody is willing to lend fish farmers money. Unlike most agricultural ventures, we [fish farmers] hardly get loans. Although for crops and animal husbandry, they are a bit more fortunate [because] people can easily see maize, yam and other crops. But in fisheries, we have issues sourcing funds.”

This major funding gap makes it difficult for fish farmers to meet up with the increasing cost of feed. Fish feed alone accounts for 60–75 percent of the total cost of fish production in Nigeria; even as fish farmers blamed the high cost of feed on the rising prices of transportation, raw materials, and energy.

Bello said the high cost of feed was his biggest challenge.

“The feed aspect is a project on its own [because of the] intensive capital involved,” he said. “We used to buy one bag for about N7,000 (€4.35) until 2019, now it is over N20,000 (€12.44) [and] and yet the quality has also declined.”

Fapohunda explains that low-quality fish meal is significantly impacting fish growth and survival rates, but this challenge led her to collaborate with her colleagues to carry out a series of research projects aimed at finding alternatives.

Backed by funding from the Innovate UK Global Alliance Africa, Fapohunda said that EKSU are now using black soldier fly larvae to produce feed that is more affordable, while improving growth rates and fish health.

She adds that a recent research project showed that catfish fed contained less nutrition

“We discovered that the cholesterol of the farmed fish was high because they fed the fish rubbish. That’s because they [fish farmers] want to make the fish get bigger on time,” Fapohunda explains.

“We are trying to see how we can mitigate the problem of feed. Apart from the cost, the kind of things they feed fish with now are bad.”

Post-harvest challenges

To fish farmer Akin Showemimo, other major challenges include the paucity of cold storage and processing facilities, which sometimes result in post-harvest losses.

According to Showemino, increasing the capacity of cold storage and processing facilities will help to avoid wastage and spoilage, as well as allow farmers better opportunities to sell their fish at a favourable price.

“Post-harvest handling is our real challenge. There are not many places you can store your fish after harvesting till you get the right buyer,” Showemimo says. “But when you want to harvest and the buyer tells you this is the amount he wants to buy, you will sell it because you don’t have a place to store it.”

“As a businessman, I don't have a problem with the fish feed or fuel price going up [provided] the price of my fish is also going up at the same rate. [But] it does not go up because we are at the mercy of the fish buyers, because we don’t have post-harvest handling,” Showemimo adds.

Meanwhile, Bello says he has a passion for fish farming mainly because he sees it “as a business that deals with human existence or survival.” However, while he acknowledges the possibility of profitable fish farming, he does not see himself returning to the business until there is a change.

“For now, I'm not looking to go back to fish farming because the economy is not friendly,” he concludes.