FISH farmers in Lagos, under the aegis of the Lagos State Catfish and Allied Association of Nigeria (LASCAFAN), have received boost as the state government, through the Agro-Productivity, Processing, Enhancement and Livelihood Support (APPEALS) project, a World Bank funded project, has supported the group with a blast freezer for preservation of catfish, to reduce post-harvest loses and curb effects of fish mongers.
Worried by the extent of post-harvest losses recorded yearly in the catfish subsector as well as exploitation of fish farmers and right pricing, the stakeholders in Ikorodu division where the blastfreezer was launched, said the project is a dream come through for them.
Speaking at the commissioning of the LASCAFAN Ikorodu blast freezer centre and launching of the frozen catfish product during the week, Abisola Olusanya, Commissioner for Agriculture, said the project was to promote value addition.
She said introducing frozen catfish would address and deliver fish farmers from the crush of fish mongers who determine price without recourse to cost of production.
Olusanya, who was represented by Daisi Osunkoya, Director of Fisheries, stated that fish, a major source of protein, is low in cholesterol, making it medically acceptable to young and old people.
She said the flexibility of fish farming encouraged the involvement of both older and younger people in the process, as a means of livelihood.
Olusanya, noted that the state, with a population of about 25 million people, require 425,009 tonnes of fish per annum, in line with the World Health Organisation recommendation of 17kg fish protein intake per person per annum, but that the current fish production figure is about 198,706 tonnes per annum.
In her goodwill message at the launch, Omolara Oguntuyi the Lagos State Coordinator for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security said that Lagos state is setting the pace in fish, that the farmers are doing well.
She advised the farmers to continue in the good work they are doing and to ensure that they guide what they are doing jealously.
“it is good you are doing what you are doing and please what you have started follow it through, don’t let it be that in a twinkle of an eye it is dead, make sure you guard it jealously and hand it over to your children.
“Protein is in high shortage in Nigeria and everybody can bear me witness because it is very expensive, I am telling you with this you are doing, it will stabilise our price in fish and it will reduce wastage and God will help you,” she said.
Former national president of the Catfish Association of Nigeria who is now the chairman of the blast freezer management, Tayo Akingbolagun, said that the launch means a lot to the farmers, adding that catfish farmers have really suffered in the hands of fish mongers who will await farmers to buy off their fish at any price either it’s comfortable for the farmers or not.
“The farmers don’t have the option but to sell because they cannot store, they cannot process and so they have to sell under stress.
“Today, we have the farmers who will buy the facility, buy the fish feed, buy the fish pay for electricity and run the whole cost only to wait for fish mongers to buy at any price they chose to.
“This is not sustainable for the farmers, and so, by and large, the fish farmers’ continue to make losses and shrink and eventually are priced out of the business and the fish mongers continue to feed fat on huge profit they made from this business, so we intend to reverse this trends.”
Akingbolagun stated further that the imported fish are sold per kilo in cold rooms, that asking why catfish can’t too be sold like that.
“So, why don’t we blastfreeze our own catfish to be sold likewise, and the beauty of it is that for these ones, this is fresh fish, there is no preservative, it has no additive, it comes fresh and it is unlike the ones that will take three to four months before it gets here,” he said.
“with this we believe that many more farmers will have the opportunity to be in business, we have floated a venture we call it LASCAFFAN Venture and we are mobilising funds to buy shares to raise funds so that we can buy from our farmers when their fish are matured and add value by blastfreezing and sell in cold rooms and cold rooms in turn sell to the end consumers by scale.
“We believe that by this, we will not only keep the farmers in production, we will also sell fish at an affordable price and more people will come into the business,” he added.
A former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Abiodun Ogunleye, said projects like this would reduce the cost of importation in the country.
He said that the project is a step in the right direction, that it would regulate and stability price, improve value and boost export opportunity adding that it would address post harvest losses.
According to him, with more projects like this, we will reduce our dependency on imported goods, we have to grow what we eat, and eat what we grow and also export and we will no longer sell our fish under pressure, we can now manage our production and market,” he said.
Ogunleye added that the aquaculture value chain if properly harnessed would replace fuel in terms of revenue generation for the country.
Chairman, Ikorodu North Local Council Development Area, Deola Banjo, noted that the initiative would be a game-changer for storage of agricultural produce in the council.
He said that the significance of a blast freezer cannot be over-emphasised as it would in no small measure impact positively on the storage and preservation of farm produce, adding that the project would lead to increased productivity and profitability for farmers.
Sejiro Michael-Oketojinu, the LASCAFAN President, Lagos State Chapter while speaking said the launch of the blastfreezer is like a breakthrough for the farmers, that it is one of the things the association has been trying to achieve over the years to take care of the post-harvest losses that the farmers have been experiencing due to marketing challenges.
“We are lucky to have the World Bank assisted project which is the APPEALS project support us with this. It is not just happening here, the support is simultaneously done in three zones; Badagry, Ikorodu and Agege. The Badagry own has been launched the Ikorodu is what we are launching and the Agege is also in the pipeline as well and we know that it is going to change the narrative in the aquaculture sector.
He said the project will drive market and that ones market is driven automatically it will drive production and that everybody within the value chain will be good for it.
Michael-Oketojinu also said that the initiative will bridge the gap of fish demand.
“It will increase production and when it increase production it is going to be more viable, business is all about turnover and the reason why a lot of people run away from the aquaculture business is because at this times we have glut not just because people don’t want to buy but because everybody wants to sell at the same time.
“There is no preservative method for the fish, so we sell at the same time, so we have post -harvest losses but with this new technology now there won’t be a rush to sell and logistics and distribution channels too are definitely going to increase which is going to give room for more of opportunity for employment too.
Speaking further he said that the frozen catfish is affordable.
“when you look at contemporaries, other fish in the market too are more expensive and when you look at the quality too this is far better of because it is indigenous, it’s natural and fresh it is direct from the farms and the preservation methods make it better and last longer, so I think more people will prefer this and it is affordable because this is locally produced.
‘With the current exchange rate those other competitive products in the market are far expensive than this and people can’t even afford it at the moment, so this is a magic everybody can afford it.
“when challenges come up it makes us wake up I think we have woken up and now it is time for us to do more when it comes to the local production. “We have a lot of indigenous species, a lot of them are depleted in the wild, this calls for more research, this calls for more indigenous cultivation of our local species, it is going to drive research and I believe in the next couple of years we should be talking of more species not just catfish and tilapia,” he added.
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