Abandoning tobacco farming for aquaculture

Sam Robi sprinkles feed on a pond and after a while, a school of fish scramble for it. He repeats the same procedure in four out of eight fishponds at his farm in Kuria West District. Besides the fingerlings, there are the bigger fish especially Tilapia, which he sells in the local market.

The cost of a piece of Tilapia in Kehancha market is Sh80. One pond, he said contains 200 tilapia and before December, he is optimistic of earning over Sh100,000 from the sale.
As the leading supplier of fingerlings within the district, he also sells each at Sh5 and in numerous occasions, he has sold up to 3,000 fingerlings. In a single pond, he grows over 1,000 fingerlings.
“This is a constant source of income, which I could not realise from tobacco growing, which I abandoned in 2003 and embraced fish farming,” he said.

Losses from tobacco

This came after he realised that the losses incurred from tobacco growing were a curse rather than a blessing.“The cost of fertiliser, herbicide and the felling of trees to dry tobacco leaves was slowly depleting the trees on my farm,” he said.

Besides this, he had to be on the farm all the time, which often required additional labour— he had to withdraw his children from school to work on the farm.

labour intensive

“Unlike tobacco farming, fish farming is not labour intensive. I need to feed them and maintain the pond,” said Robi.

The fish mature fast and ensure a steady supply to the market. One has to wait for ten months to realise the profits from tobacco.

Tobacco growing areas are also linked to the higher incidences of tobacco related diseases like cancer.

Mr Robi said he started fishfarming with Sh1,500 capital.“I dug a pond and sought the help of a government officer to supply me with the fingerlings. But after waiting for over one year, the fingerlings were yet to arrive at my farm,” he said.

It is then ActionAid, a non-government organisation working to alleviate poverty realised the need to supply him with 600 fingerlings for his three ponds so as to win him over from tobacco growing.
Fish is a key nutrient for the growth and development of children and with his family he is able to net one at any given moment.

During drought he, however, experiences shortage of the commodity as fish survives in water.