SMALL FARMER GROUPS (FARM CLUSTERS) AS A STRATEGY TO UP-SCALE TILAPIA FISH FARM PRODUCTION IN FIJI ISLANDS

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1 SMALL FARMER GROUPS (FARM CLUSTERS) AS A STRATEGY TO UP-SCALE TILAPIA FISH FARM PRODUCTION IN FIJI ISLANDS Jone Varawa 1, Tim Pickering 1, Avinash Singh 1 and Shalendra Singh 2 1 Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Fiji 2 Fiji Ministry of Fisheries and Forests

2 Purpose of this presentation Explain why farm cluster strategy is being used to improve commercial Nile tilapia farming in Fiji Demonstrate the types of work and technical interventions being undertaken with participating farmers in Fiji Illustrate the impacts that farm cluster activity is having in Fiji

3 Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus The tilapia variety farmed in Fiji is one specially developed for aquaculture, the Worldfish GIFT variety of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus

4 Farm cluster strategy Farm clusters, or Small Farmer Groups (SFG), for small-scale pond aquaculture is a strategy that has brought clear benefits for small-holder fish and shrimp farmers in India and in Indonesia But has only very recently been applied in Pacific island countries like Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.

5 Farm cluster strategy SFGs are expected to bring: economies of scale, increased bargaining power in procurement of farm inputs like hatchery-seed and feed orders, better access to finance, more coordinated marketing, promote knowledge-sharing among participating farmers.

6 Farm cluster strategy Sometimes one farmer will specialize in a particular aspect of the fish custody chain, for example: hatchery production fingerling nursery feed manufacture and then other farmers will cluster around this node and specialize on grow-out of fish to harvest size.

7 Issues facing tilapia farming in Fiji The tilapia aquaculture sector has historically been dependent upon free services provided by Fiji government under a social obligation to improve food security and nutrition in Fiji. Free or subsidized services include digging fish ponds providing tilapia fingerlings from hatcheries harvest and transportation of fish to markets.

8 Issues facing tilapia farming in Fiji Free or subsidized services has been a successful strategy to establish and maintain a tilapia farming industry in Fiji But it limits the industry down to a size which government is able to support. To grow Fiji s tilapia aquaculture industry to a size beyond the limitations of the annual budget for government assistance, bigger commercial farmers need to become self-reliant. Government can then concentrate on helping the truly poor people in Fiji

9 Issues facing tilapia farming in Fiji Some problems created by government hand-outs: There is a long waiting list for hatchery fingerlings To meet demand more quickly, govt hatchery gives out fish at very small size. Mortality at pond stocking is high Fish are not counted properly When fish are free of charge, farmers don t bother to prepare ponds properly, and they over-stock the ponds A hand-out industry is a SMALL and INEFFICIENT industry

10 Goal To add a new layer of viable commercial-scale tilapia aquaculture supplying fish to peri-urban markets To provide the bigger and more commercially oriented tilapia farmers in Fiji with more capacity to take responsibility for their own aquaculture services and farm inputs, and stop being a burden on government To demonstrate the potential of commercial tilapia farming as a business in Fiji

11 Work being done with Fiji commercial tilapia farmers SPC Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems (FAME) Division and the European Union-funded SPC Increasing Agriculture Commodity Trade (IACT) project are collaborating with Fiji Ministry of Fisheries and Forests (MoFF) to facilitate tilapia farm clusters. Since February 2013 two farmer groups in Viti Levu have been formed by invitation after consultations between SPC and MoFF. We only work with 15 farmers, and we spend quality time!

12 Work being done with Fiji commercial The approach has been a consultative one to: identify farmer constraints, tilapia farmers benchmark actual farm performance against their full potential, encourage knowledge-sharing by more-successful farmers, and help farmers to develop a range of improvements in farm design and farmer practice.

13 Work being done with Fiji commercial Conduct monthly pond sampling of fish size to benchmark farm production Provide logbooks for recordkeeping by farmers Assess farm design and operation, recommend changes to remedy faults Provide advice to improve handling and feeding techniques tilapia farmers

14 On going activity with Fiji commercial SPC and Fisheries Dept. hold regular meetings with each farmer group to exchange ideas, learn about problems, help develop solutions, and form united group actions SPC and MoFF Extension staff visit farms to advise farmers, implement solutions, and demonstrate techniques tilapia farmers

15 Common issues Even the best farmers were operating at about 50% of pond production capability Even the best farms have serious design problems like insufficient water supply, ponds dug too deep and cannot be drained out, brackish water supply, etc Hardly any farmers understand the biology of fish and the pond water conditions needed for good fish growth Farmers are not giving enough feed, or they give cheap feed that ends up more expensive (because growth takes longer)

16 Common Issues Lack of training programmes on pond management, especially on the importance of feed, stocking density, importance of fertilizer, and water management. Insufficient supply of tilapia fingerlings. High size variation in fry supplied, with low survival rate due to very small sizes supplied Expensive tilapia feeds and limited access to feed ingredients for making own feed. Poor record keeping. High rates of inbreeding and poor growth rate. Lack of established sales outlets with infrastructure for live tilapia.

17 Impacts of the Fiji farm clusters work After one year the improvement in farm output, and adoption of aquaculture bestpractices, has been measurable and dramatic.

18 Impacts of the Fiji farm clusters work One farmer is now producing allmale fish by incubator technique, and is selling surplus fingerlings to other farmers. This is a historical first never before have Fiji farmers bought fingerlings while govt. has been giving them away for free Proves that farmers are willing to pay money for big size, strong swimming, and accurate counting

19 Impacts of the Fiji farm clusters work Farmers in the same area who previously did not know each other are now meeting regularly and exchanging information. Farmers are willing to share knowledge with each other. They get satisfaction from helping out neighbors it increases their status as leaders in the community

20 Impacts of the Fiji farm clusters work Participating farmers have implemented on-farm trials to compare: growth of mixed-sex vs. male-only fingerlings, and size variability of incubator reared vs. knock-down tank reared fingerlings.

21 Impacts of the Fiji farm clusters work Record-keeping by farmers is much improved. Increase from 10% to 86% of farmers who practice proper record keeping Farmers are now convinced they need records to know whether they are making profit or loss to budget for farm costs to approach financial institutions.

22 Impacts of the Fiji farm clusters work Farms that were operating below 50% of theoretical farm production capacity are now operating at 60-80% Our biggest compliment came from the wife of one farmer: Thank you! We having been farming and selling tilapia for the last few years, we didn't know that we producing only 47% of the farm capacity. With you guys assisting us we almost doubled our production. This year is the best sale of tilapia among all other years.

23 Feed Development Future work Trials to improve feed quality and availability, and reduce its cost Market Development Diversify market channels for commercial tilapia farmers in Fiji Farm clusters for subsistence tilapia farmers Extend the farm cluster concept to small household-scale tilapia farmers in Fiji, Vanuatu, and Samoa communities Lessons learned from Fiji and Solomon Islands clusters (Harohau et al: this session) to be applied to these other countries too

24 MAY FISH BE WITH YOU!