Farmers laud Olam Agri’s contribution to aquaculture growth

Fish farmears in Nigeria have lauded for the recent improvement in productivity levels in the aquaculture segment, attributing this to the company’s investments in the value chain.

Speaking during a recent value chain review exercise, the farmers attested to the business’ efforts at raising operating capacity in the aquaculture sector.

Olam Agri in Nigeria, an agribusiness in food, feed and fiber started investing in the aquaculture value chain in 2017 through its feed milling unit.

Before then, the sector was bedeviled with different challenges among which were poor knowledge of modern fish farming practices, inaccessibility of high-quality feed, high mortalities in hatcheries, slow growth in nursery phase and irregular sizes during harvest. This led the agribusiness to immediately set machinery in motion to address the challenges.

The company flew in one of its global aqua experts, Mr. Matthew Tan, who trained and introduced local farmers to trendy fish farming practices.

He also trained over 40 Olam Agri technical experts who continued to work with the farmers. Approximately 7,500 Nigerian fish farmers, among whom female fish farmers, were equipped with the best aquaculture practices by the business’s team of experts.

In addition, the agribusiness located a state-of-the-art feed mill in Ilorin to ensure a steady supply of quality and affordable fish feed to fish farmers.

Speaking on the business’ approach to raising productivity in the aquaculture value chain, Vice President of the Animal Feed and Protein Unit, Olam Agri in Nigeria, Ankit Puri, said: “A crucial aspect of our success story is that we keep the fish farmers at the heart of our strategy.”

Speaking on the development, the Vice President of the Lagos State Catfish and Allied Farmers Association, Olatoye Fajimi, said: “Olam agri employs technical experts who go around to visit farms to work with the farmers to improve farm clusters’ productivity.”

Founder of Odafi Fish Farm, Lazarus Odafi, also commended Olam Agri for visiting farm clusters to train farmers on pond water management techniques, testing PH level in the pond, and ways to curb feed waste.

“They helped us understand the science of catfish farming, especially how to create the right environment for the fish to thrive. These efforts have really impacted our businesses.”