Former Soldier turns to Fish farming
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| Mr. Ezati Apollo with his beehives |
He is a former soldier of the Kings African Rifles and by all means a very principled
and hard working man. At 70 years, Mr. Apollo Ezati, a farmer from Lamila village
in Terego district is not about to slow down. He aims to make sure his children
and their children always have something to fall back to in life. Despite Terego
district having no traditional fishing grounds, Mr. Ezati decided to exploit the
abundant water resources of his village to start a fish farm. He started the enterprise
in 1990, but the main breakthrough came with the registration of his group to
access services under the NAADS programme.
“I have been doing fish farming for a long time. However when NAADS rolled
out to our district, I eagerly joined. They helped me acquire knowledge to improve
my ponds through several trainings in fish farming. After this they also took
me for a tree nursery course in Kawanda. With their support I have started tree
and fruit nurseries and opened up apiary sites. Ezati, who relies on his extended
family for labor, said he has been given 200 improved beehives by NAADS to add
to his income generating activities.
He now owns 10 fish ponds with 1000 Miira caps, 8000 Tilapia in 3 ponds and 1300
Catfish. “Catfish is much more popular and grows very big. Each fish can
weigh three kilos after 8 months. Each kilo costs about sh4000, so I can earn
up to sh15.6m after eight months. My problem is getting fish food. To get food
supply from Arua is a lot of money and I also have problems transporting the fish
for sale in Arua. Now I sell most of the fish here at the source,” he says.
According to Ezati on average, depending on the stocking, he earns between sh6m
to sh8m per pond per season and can harvest up to three times a year.
Tilapia takes up to six months to mature, Cat fish takes 8 months while Miira
cap, which he imports, from Israel takes 8 months. While Ezati has no proper
book-keeping records on how much he earns from his ponds, estimates place his
earnings at over sh100m annually. “The market is available, people buy
very fast but because I don’t have transport to take to Arua town, they
come here and I sell the fish at a cheap price. As they come to buy, some also
get interested in the trade and I train them to dig the ponds and start fish
ponds.
As a model farmer, I have managed to train more farmers about fish rearing
I have dung up about 48 such ponds in various parishes as stock farms,”
a visibly proud Ezati informed us.
While Ezati is capable of buying his own transportation, his focus is on paying
school fees for all the children in his extended family, alongside training
them in fish farming such that they can be capable to take over the enterprise
after him.
“I get the money but I have many children and grandchildren and am paying
their school fees. Am happy that I have improved the production capacity of
my farm and maybe this year, I will be buying a vehicle,” he said.
He has also diversified into tree and fruit seedling production, courtesy
of NAADS. Currently he has 20,000 seedlings that he sells at sh4,000 each earning
him approximately sh80m annually.
Mzee Ezati’s grandchildren are his greatest allies in his farming and
trade. The youngest one, Joya Onet, is in primary seven at Kijomoro primary
school and speaks fluent English. His ambition is to complete school and plan
their family business much better than his grandfather. “I want to do
what he is doing but do it even much better. He is now old and wants us to follow
what he is doing, which is a good thing. But if I am more educated than him,
I will earn more money than him in agriculture,” he said.
