Business
Fish Farmer Laments Catfish Importation
A Lagos-based fish farmer, Mr Linus Dibia last Monday raised alarm over the importation of catfish into the country to the detriment of local farmers.
Dibia told newsmen in Lagos that catfish was being imported from neighbouring African countries and sold at lower rates to market women.
He said that the imported variety was cheaper because the governments of those African countries subsidised inputs.
He said that Nigeria was a beneficiary of the World Bank’s West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) assisted regional agricultural project which included aqua culture but that Nigerian farmers were not feeling the impact of the aid.
Dibia operates a catfish farm in Ijegun in Ikotun/Igando Local Council Development Area (LCDA).
He said governments of other African countries through the grant, were assisting their fish farmers but Nigerian farmers were not able to compete because of high cost of fish feeds.
“Presently the price of fish is going down while that of feeds is increasing.
“People are importing catfish from other African countries where their governments are using the World Bank assisted project to assist the farmers.
“We cannot compete favourably because instead of our own to be cheaper, it is more expensive so, the market women prefer to buy the imported catfish.
“Both the state and federal government should subsidise fish feeds for us,” he said. He lamented that the federal government always said it was releasing funds but that it was not getting to the real farmers.
He said that fish farmers relied on foreign fish feeds which were expensive and sold for N6,500 per 15 kilograms while the same quantity of the local variety sold for about N5,000.
He appealed to the federal and state government to support fish farmers as was done to other farmers.
“We want Lagos state and federal government to support us with fish feeds as they do to other local farmers that they give fertilisers,” he said.
He also appealed to the federal government to ensure ongoing registration of farmers in the country was not an exercise in futility.
He urged government to keep its promise to assist the farmers as according to him farmers in Lagos were being registered a fourth time.