Catfish farming, New money maker
Three catfish rearers have highlighted the economic and profitable prospects of the venture, referring to it as the new money maker.
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According to them, because the industry is relatively new and unsaturated with suppliers, there is not much competition for customers.
However, in interviews with The Mirror last week, it seemed demand was beginning to exceed supply as at some ”Point and kill” catfish joints, market women bemoaned the difficulty in accessing the fish for their trade. 
Mr Rockson Kporku of Mukase Farms at Aburi has been a large scale catfish farmer for seven years
According to the owner of Aquarium Catfish and Bar in Osu, Accra, Ms Rosemre Hollomah, there were days she had to disappoint customers because she did not have the fish in stock.
According to her, before the fish could be put on the menu, it needed to weigh at least one kilogramme.
“However, most catfish farmers were start-ups, as such their fish were yet to grow to the required weight”, she explained.
In separate interviews, three market women at the Madina market who traded in smoked catfish attributed their expensive prices to the scarcity of the fish and the current economic challenges in the country.
At the time of this report, a very small-sized smoked catfish sold at GH¢6.
This reporter visited three catfish farms within Accra to probe what went into the rearing of this fish and the challenges.
How to start
One of the fish farmers, owner of Mukase farms at Aburi in the Eastern Region, Mr Rockson Kporku, said he had been rearing the fish on a large scale for seven years.
He said catfish rearing could be done in dug out ponds, tarpaulin pools, a cemented well, a white poly tank or anything that could hold enough water but should not be black in colour.
He explained that the non-black rule was because the fish were black skinned and so in a black container, it would be difficult to notice when something went wrong with them.
Mr Kporku said he used the tarpaulin pool option and had ten huge ones installed on his farm. In addition, he reared poultry, goats and cattle.
Mr Kporku, who is an accountant, explained that baby catfish which were three to five weeks’ old were called fingerlings, followed by juveniles, typically six to eight weeks old before they became jumbo sizes after six months.
The backyard farm of Nutrio Agric Business at Adenta, Accra
He added that in order to reach the jumbo size, the fish needed about six months of growth.
To start this business, the farmer said the essentials were constant supply of water, fish feed, artificial oxygen and a filtration machine, if possible.
Our reporter also visited the backyard farm of 23-year-old owner of Nutrio Agric Business at Adenta-Amanfro, Elizabeth Oluwatosin Bammeke.
Ms Bammeke, who has been in the business since last year, said she started with 2000 juvenile sized fishes.
She advised that it was important to stay within one’s financial capacity and also to frequently change the water in order to prevent toxicity from ammonium and faecal waste.
“With feeding, it is necessary to understand the rule peculiar to the different fish sizes. Fingerlings, for example, need to be fed twice a day with powdered feed or one millimetre (mm) pellet sized, fish feed. Over feeding can kill the fish”, she said.
Currently, Ms Bammeke, a Nigerian who was born and raised in Ghana, said she was pursuing Masters in Philosophy in Agriculture Business Management at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science Technology (KNUST).
Cost
The fish farmers said the cost involved was mainly with the feed and having to change the water almost every week unless one used a filtration machine. This recurring cost, they said, affected input which resulted in the costly price of the fish.
When asked about the ideal start-up capital, Mr Kporku said; “it depended on how many fish and the size of fish one wanted to begin with but he believed with GH¢3000, a constant supply of water and a tank, one could buy about 100-300 juveniles and purchase the fish feed with the remainder.
“However, they may have to top up along the line because the fish eat a lot”, he added.
Our reporter then visited Kobe catfish farm at Nsawam, where the owner, Mr Michael Kobe Ansah, confirmed that this was possible.
Mr Ansah, who also bred only fingerlings and juveniles in a pond and poly tank, said one fingerling sold for GH ¢1.20p while juveniles were GH¢1.80p.
Economic prospects and profit
According to the farmers, the business was profitable.
“One kilogramme sized of the fish (jumbo) was sold at GH¢45 on retail and GH¢40 on wholesale. On average, I sell around two tonnes, thus 2000 jumbo sized catfish every three weeks. I also make my own feed in order to reduce my input cost”, Mr Kporku said.
Mr Ansah, on the other hand, said he made sales almost every day, recounting that prior to the reporter’s arrival on the farm, he had sold 5000 pieces of the juvenile size.
The fish farmers highlighted other avenues that could be explored in consultancy, training and the manufacturing of the feed.
“For me, I make my money through consultancy and acting as a middle man until my fish are matured enough to go on the market”, Ms Bammeke stated.
Challenges
The main challenge in the business is the imported nature of the fish feed which made them quite expensive.
“Even with the few locally manufactured ones, the raw materials, such as soybeans needed to produce, are imported”, Mr Ansah said.
For the part of Mr Kporku, his challenge was with managing his 10 employees and transportation given the poor nature of roads.
Ms Bammeke of Nutrio Agric Business bemoaned the cannibalistic nature of catfishes. She said this meant that one could lose quite a number of the fish from the initial stock with which one started the farming.
