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To start off, she dug a pond and stocked it with nile tilapia fingerlings. Since she was still a novice, her first harvest was unimpressive. But she never gave up.
Lucky for her, in mid-2013, when the national government under the Economic Stimulus Programme rolled out fish farming on commercial grounds, she was among the beneficiaries.
“The team expanded my pond and gave me 1,000 fingerlings and 3 bags (50kgs) of pellets to start,” says Zinath.
The fingerlings were two months old and she started feeding them on fish pellets, fish mash and planktons. After six months, she harvested all the stock and sold them locally.
At that time they had attained between 250 grams -300 grams and she sold them at Sh200 each making a profit of Sh160, 000.
First harvest
Along the journey, to help sharpen her skills, the county government sent experts from the Kenya Marine Fisheries and Research Institute (Kmfri) who audited her ‘Tigoi Fish Farm’ and issued her with an incubation licence for hatching fingerlings.
She dug three more ponds and immersed herself in the business fully.
She now rears mono sex nile tilapia and catfish fingerlings and is a master of sorts.
Vital tips
“In a breeding pond, a male fish is supposed to serve four female fish. After stocking fish that has attained the age of reproducing, you wait between 18-21 days and harvest the eggs. At this time, the male fish will have placed sperms on the eggs and will be ready for hatching,” says Zinath.
She adds: “When we want the eggs, we cast a net and get out the parent stock first and transfer them to another pond. We then harvest the eggs and take them to the hatchery for three days, after which they are hatched.”
To boost her venture, she spent more than Sh1.5 million to acquire six incubation tanks which she uses in hatching eggs.
The money was profit accrued from selling fingerlings.
Healthy yields
For healthy yields, Ms Zinath feeds her fish on mash mixed with hormones for 30 days, saying the food is good for sex reversal so that all females are converted to males. Why males? They take a shorter time to mature unlike females that spend a lot of time hatching eggs and therefore cannot be reared for commercial purposes.
According to Zinath, after 30 days, formation of one sex will be complete and then they are taken to the ponds with green water that has 35 per cent crude oil (planktons).
“We sell to farmers after two months and they can rear them for six months and sell them. At this time, they will be weighing between 250-400grams,” says Zinath.
The farmer sells each fingerling at Sh7 each.
She has several take homes for new farmers.
Research centre
She advises farmers to ensure their pond has no life when they are re-stocking it to avoid inbreeding.
Inbreeding she says, leads to poor quality fish.
Zinath uses lime to kill frogs in the ponds and any unwanted life.
To tap into value addition, she makes fish kebab, fish samosas and fish sausage, which she sells to locals.
Going forward, she is building an Sh11 million complex which will house a restaurant and lecture halls for fish farmers.
“Every year students from Maseno, Moi and Egerton universities are here on attachment and do their projects. I also host fish farmers at my farm during open field days. I want to have enough facilities since am converting my farm into a research centre,” she says.
The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization
with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print operations,
television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group
is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in
matters of national and international interest.
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