BY PATRICK NGENOH
Bomet county residents have tuned out the mindset from the resistance dormancy of tea plantation in the area, which, have grim challenges to them, but SISICH Group have become the umbrella of eradicating the prevailing poverty by venturing to fish farming activity.
The group was started in 2005 and Joseah Chepkosiom was the cofounder of the fish farming form at Bomet central constituency, where the Name SISICH are the initial letters of the three locations, Sibaiyan, Singorwent and Chesoen.
Mr Paul Koskei the chairperson of the group and entire Bomet county said digging fish pond on the land was not an easy task to go with, but to transformed the norm of the residents from tea farming, to fish farming to teach the community the important of making the fish as a source of food to them, they ventured into commercial Cage fish farming.
" With the dwindling local fish , we saw an opportunity and took it up. Our fish batch of fish pond were put into the water in June 2005 and by the end of last year , our daily production was way above," Koskei said.
SISICH group today has more than 25 deep water of fish pond, where every member has two fish pond on the land.
"Our members are 25 and each has two fish ponds which make them to joined the group, the seriousness of the members are measured by analysing the maintaining of the give fingerlings", He adds.
Mr Koskei said the fish pond hold 1,000 fingerlings tilapia are ranging from two to six months old in this types of environments strong currents flash through the cage fish pond throughout the day and create favourable conditions for the fingerlings to mature faster.
" This means the fingerlings are raised in an environment that mirrors that of wild tilapia. The response of the customer has been favourable, and the pickiest of connoisseurs is unable to distinguished between wild type and our fingerlings cage produced tilapia," he said.
He further explains that fish pond are 25 square meters, holdings 1000 fingerlings each in this year . SISICH farm produced 30,000 units of fish with an average of 23,000 per month for the local market.
The group plans to double that figure this year . The fish have a six month growth cycle, which ensure that they remain available in the market and at the fish pond.
" Over the past two decades, local people have seen their catch of tilapia rised by almost 5 per cent , yet the population growth has not doubled up," He revealed.
The fish are fed three time daily - twice in the morning and once in the evening on a mix of local since they have a dryer machine which produced there own fingerlings food.
The fish pond managers are the owners tasked with checking the water temperature, oxygen levels water clarity and cleaning of the surrounding to avoid clogging, which ensure the fish thrive in the best of natural environment.
Mr chekosiomsaid, the number has grown to more than in two years . The group will soon runs a hatchery that will produced up to 20,000, fingerlings per week , yet this kind or rapid growth is not without its challenge and takes a special kind of perseverance.
"Fish farming in Kenya is very costly and unlike countries like China , Kenya has to imported the fish feeds which is expensive," Koskei adds.
These ponds are covered wing a net to keep away aerial predators and also flying debris and dirt, but they are planning to purchase to prevent the animals which fed on fingerlings like otter that stay in waters.
On feeding the fingerlings have no specific feeding schedule and the criteria used is that the feed is measured in 500g or 1kg then distributed for the specific ponds depending on the size of the ponds and the perceived amount of fingerlings the pond has then.
"We have no specific feeds for fingerlings to give them but we have struggled to obtain them to sustained the fingerlings in the fish ponds," Chepkosiom adds.
The feed is then sprinkled in the ponds numerous times per day until each of the ponds daily ration of food is finished. Though he has never experienced illnesses effecting the fingerlings the major challenges he has to contend with is their mortality.
Ensure there is plenty of circulating water enough shade balanced diet fish food and the right circulation of oxygen in the fish pond water.
"Just a few months after, kicked off keeping fish some young aspiring fish farmer visited my farm farm because they heard that I was doing well. As expected starting starting off was marked with one challenge after another," he said.
"I had to visit other fish farmer to learn best practiced the farmer tells scholar.
The farmer, however admits that the going has its fair share of challenge. That is why I had to start making my own feed . I also do not have a big freezer to keep fish for long . That means when I harvest my fish , I have to make sure I sell all of them otherwise they will go bad .But I plan to invest in a modern freezer soon," He said.
He also trains interested farmers on seed formulation, how to manufacture fish feeds, processing and skills to start fish farming.
For the five years , I have been in this business, there have made tremendous profit part of which a position of it, I invested back into my venture," He adds.
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