How To Manage A Fish Farm In Nigeria Successfully

a. the best manager is one who is also the owner of the farm and lives at the farm. b. team building is a management tool for the workers at the farm. Regular meetings should be held with staff to strengthen human capacity and create a team spirit. Each worker is important to the farm enterprise and this needs to be communicated to them. This management approach will contribute to improved management and hopefully prevent theft at the farm by employees. c. Sampling should be well organized with all equipment, scales, nets and record keeping materials on site before starting the sample. Samples should be carried out in the early morning hours when cooler temperatures prevail. Avoid stressing fish. d. When sampling fish, they should be graded, to maintain fish of a fairly uniform size in each pond. Shooters can be separated and stocked in a pond for fast growers. e. Fish to be transported need to be held in tanks for 2 days without food to condition them for transport. f. Handling of fish should always be done in water in buckets. Tubs can be used to hold water and fish can be counted and sorted using plastic hampers with holes which are positioned in the tubs with water. When fish are to be weighed, the hamper with fish is lifted out of the water and the fish can be quickly weighed in the hamper without water; the hamper weight is tared prior to counting and sorting the fishing. The fish are then returned to water. g. Harvest of fish should be easy on a well-managed farm. All equipment, nets, buckets, tubs, scales and record keeping materials are put in place in advance. The market is ready to receive the fish. Hapas or cages are placed in a nearby pond to receive any undersized or small fish. The transport equipment is on site to transport the fish to market or to holding tanks. The workers are available for the seining and harvesting of fish in the early hours of h. All sampling and harvest information are to be well documented. Such records are used in planning for the next crop and for business management. Eventually good records will be used in establishing a business plan which can be used in applying for bank loans if needed.