Young fish farmers wanting to farm fish commercially find it hard to source quality fingerlings. Most farmers exchange fingerlings bred in their own ponds resulting in low productivity.

Yapasa supported Pakayeloba hatchery in Solwezi to introduce a new distribution model, supplying fry to community nurseries, after sending some hatchery managers to a training at the Asian Institute of Technology.

George, a nursery operator linked to Pakayaloba hatchery, who raised his first batch of fingerlings earlier this year and has outstanding orders of almost 100,000 fingerlings from about 25 farmers. said:

“I have been selling mixed sex fingerlings for some time now. However, my customers started refusing my fingerlings as these were not growing as expected. I was so sad to see the business vanishing but with the linkage to the hatchery, I am able to regain my business credibility and to sell higher quality fingerlings at a relatively low price. As a private service provider for a number of saving groups, it will be easy for me to educate people about the quality fingerlings, and I can easily reach out to 100 farmers”

Abby Chabala, owner of Pakayeloba hatchery already plans to produce 2 million quality fingerlings for next season and to expand his network of nurseries.

“I am conscious of the brand of my hatchery. I want to see less mortality and faster distribution of the fry/fingerlings from my hatchery. The skilled nursery operators are good in handling these delicate fry and also are able to do after sales follow up to their nearby farmers. It will also be easy for the farmers to buy from the nursery operators in their vicinity.”

To improve the model training on good fish farming practice and using quality feed could be provided by the nursery operators.

Pakeyeloba Hatchery expands distribution through nurseries

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