Computer graduate who opted to be a fisherman

When Tarad Iborich Okello, 30, a resident of Kali Centre, Pabbo Sub-county, Amuru District completed his course in information technology in 2008, he knew great opportunities awaited him.

However, a visit to his village in 2009 gave him a fresh perspective. He realised that it was hard to find fresh fish and if one was lucky to find it, it was expensive to buy.

As he awaited his “dream job” he decided to dig one fish pond to see “what would happen”. He says after doing some research, he realised that no one on the village had fish pond so he knew he could not got wrong.

He enrolled for aquaculture training at the Fisheries Training Institute in Kiryandongo for three months and attained certificate in aquaculture.

With his new found knowledge, he dug one fish pond and started out with 270 fish. When he harvested them, he sold them at Shs1,762,000.

Journey to aquaculture
Realising that he had virgin territory, Okello set up 10 more fish ponds and bought 5,840 two-month-old cat fish and tilapia fingerlings.

He said each of the 11 fish ponds serve different purposes. “All the fish ponds here serve different purposes. There are those that I use for separating male from female ones to avoid multiplication, others serve as harvest basins for breeding fingerlings, there are those for only cat fish, others are for tilapia and there are others reserved for week-old fingerlings,” Okello says.

Maintenance
Okello says he maintains his fish farm by slashing around the pond area to deter predators. Unfortunately, a few monitor lizards still invade the fish farm and eat his fish.

He routinely drains each pond of all the water to fertilise with chicken manure before refilling it with water. The manure, he says, is a nutritious boost for the fish and fingerlings.

He also repairs the fish ponds after every three months using ash which is useful for liming the pond.
For water, Okello uses protected spring water which he is connected to.

“The fish ponds have to be dug where there is water source that you can tap water from. Underground water source is not recommended and the fish ponds have to contain both inlets and outlets,” he explains.

Feeding
Okello uses rice husks mixed with fish meal and floating feeds. He says he uses variety of feds because when fish are not well-fed they take long to mature meaning a farmer will have to incur double costs for feeding.

“It’s better to feed fish/fingerlings with adequate recommended feeds so that they mature, quickly and are sold off,” he says.
Fingerlings aged two to three months are supposed to be fed thrice, after that stage feeding is done twice. The fish take between eight and nine months to mature for sale.

Labour
Okello says, most of the work at his fish farm is done by him and his wife.
But sometimes he hires a few labourers when there is need to help in slashing around the fish ponds and draining the water from the fish pond.
The wages paid ranges between Shs4,000-5,000 depending on the work load.

“The work can only last for a day and I can employ about 8-10 people depending on the work load. Each of these is paid between Shs40,000 and Shs50,000, including lunch. Other labourers are given fish in exchange for their services, he says.

Market
Okello sells tilapia between Shs4,000 and Shs8,000 depending on the size. The cat fish is Shs16,000 per kilogramme but for those who take in bulk it’s negotiable.

Okello says he sells his products in bulk and his major customers are hoteliers and institutions such as schools and hospitals.
He also has walk-in clients who buy a few for home consumption. To supplement his income, Okello’s wife sells some of the fish at nearby trading centres.

Because of the high demand within the communities, he cannot sell fish in South Sudan although he is near the border and would probably earn much more there.

Okello believes in sharing resources. He continues to give free consultations to prospective aquaculture farmers in Amuru District. He also sells fingerlings to other farmers.

Since he started out in 2010, Okello has made Shs66m in sales. He says the fish is harvested once a year and each harvest fetches him 11m.

Plans
Okello plans to construct hatchery for tilapia fish so that he can produce more fingerlings.

He also wants value additions to his products. He wants to begin packaging in tins for export.

He wants to make his fish farm a recreational centre since he is near water sites. He wants to erect a fence to reduce on the number of predators.
He has already started constructing big building so that he brings all his siblings to stay around and guard his farm in case he is not around.

Achievements
Some of the proceeds from the fish ponds were used to put up a nursery school with two permanent teachers. He has also managed to pay fees for his siblings who are of school going age as well as support his family.

He also earns at least Shs300,000 every month from training in aquaculture at his fish farm.

Challenges
Okello says his major challenge is failure to meet the demand. “Some clients can come with big orders but end up disappointed because others would have placed their orders, you cannot leave the ones that came first then you serve the later. I do “first come first serve”; I respect all my customers irrespective of their orders,” he says.

Another challenge are petty thieves who steal his fish. He recently lost 238 fish from his farm.
He also points out that feeds are expensive. He has to move a distance to get feeds. Of these feeds, about 30 per cent is wasted in water. Some of this feed contains bacteria which can be dangerous to fish.

Labourers hired during maintenance are expensive.