Throughout the centuries fish has been an important component of the
population’s diet in many parts of the world this brings us to how to start fish farming. Fish catches increased rapidly over the past hundred years due to improved technology,
which provided more powerful engines and sonar equipment. This led
to over fishing and caused a worldwide decrease in wild stocks. As a
result, the growth in fish catches stopped some 20 years ago. The need
to increase fish production by farming became therefore an urgent
matter.

The term ‘aquaculture’ covers all forms of cultivation of aquatic animals and plants in fresh-, brackish- and saltwater. Aquaculture has the
same objective as agriculture, namely, to increase the production of
food above the level that would be produced naturally in fish farming ponds. Today, aquaculture is responsible for an ever-increasing share of global aquatic
food production, which has increased from 3.9 percent in 1970 to 31.9
percent in 2003 (FAO, 2005).

As in agriculture, fish farming techniques include:
Removal of unwanted plants and animals
Replacement by desirable species of fish
Improvement of these species by crossbreeding and selection
Increase of nutrient availability by the use of fertilisers and feeds
Fish farming can be combined with agriculture, animal husbandry and
irrigation practices, which can lead to better utilisation of local resources and ultimately to higher production and net profits. This practice is called ‘integrated fish farming’



Advantages of fish farming
1. Fish provides high quality animal protein for human consumption.

2. A farmer can often integrate fish farming into the existing farm to create
additional income and improve its water management.

3. Fish growth in ponds can be controlled: the farmers themselves select the
fish species they wish to raise.

4. The fish produced in a pond are the owner’s property; they are secure and
can be harvested at will. Fish in wild waters are free for all and make an individual share in the common catch uncertain.

5. Fish in a pond are usually close at hand.

6. Effective land use: effective use of marginal land e.g. land that is too poor,
or too costly to drain for agriculture can be profitably devoted to fish farming provided that it is suitably prepared.

READ ALSO: Fish farming practices
In land-based aquaculture, the most commonly used culture units
are earthen ponds. When evaluating and selecting sites for earthen
fishponds, the main physical factors to consider are the land area, the
water supply, and the soil. The following points should be kept in mind
for each.
Land area
• Establish that the land is relatively level. Steeply sloped land is
not generally suitable for building ponds. A slope of about 1% is
considered ideal.
• Determine that the area is large enough for your present plans and
for any future expansion.
• The area should not be prone to flooding.
• The area should not be subject to pollution in runoff from adjacent
land.
• If possible, the land must be slightly lower than the water source,
so that the ponds can be filled by gravity rather than by pumping.
Supplying water by gravity greatly reduces energy inputs and
operating costs.
• In most cases the larger the surface area (with gentle slope), the
better. This is only true if the land and water are not expensive.


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