Saving aquaculture with fish feed produce

It is rare to find people who are courageous enough to discover and seize opportunities that present themselves in disguise.

A practical example today is a team of five young people named Nusra Mfikilwa, Masoud Mapalala, James Manyama, Arnold Shoko and Catherine Fridolin who are the founders of Samaki Farms, a company that uses worms to produce alternative protein supplements for fish.

This they do, despite the notion that the worms inhabit the dirt.

Arnold Shoko pioneered this great idea during his second year at the University of Dar Es Salaam while pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Aquatic sciences and fisheries.

His inspiration was shaped by his educational background in Fisheries.

Being a student and an iPhone’ retailer at the time, Arnold desired to explore his field of study deeper.

He began by seeking advice from one of his Lecturers, Jerry Mang’ena, the founder of Aqua Farms Organization.

“Mr Mang’ena advised me to map down the complete idea and how I wanted to explore it. He said this was necessary as it will give me the clarity of the idea before it kicked off. He emphasized that it was okay to start in the simplest way possible and that time would make me experience the idea in a different way,” Arnold says.

He started by hiring himself out for consultations and teaching people how to farm fish.

“Fish farming is different from other kinds of fishing because a farmer needs scientific knowledge to familiarise themselves with the fish as well as to understand the rules of the field. With the activity involving fish, I trained people to communicate with fish, and grow them successfully. I also trained them how to build dams, and to measure adequate water for the dam,” Arnold explains.

During his time as a consultant, Arnold gradually gained insight of the company he aimed to establish.

“With all the experience I gathered from the consultations, it dawned on me to set up a company that provides services beyond consultations. I then started looking for people with a similar passion to work with in order to make this dream a reality,” he says.

While he approached some people individually, he also sent a text message that detailed his intentions to a class group of about 30 people.

As he recalls the text message, the 26 year old says it stated the following, ‘I have an idea to develop a company that will deal with fisheries, if anyone is interested in being part of establishing this company, reach out to me.’

After that single text, Arnold’s phone started buzzing with texts and phone calls.

About 10 people reached out to him, as they were interested in taking part to establish the dream fish farming company.

In the first meeting, Arnold made it clear that it would be difficult for the new company to pay workers, until it is able to sustain itself.

This statement discouraged many, and consequently the number of those interested reduced to four.

One day during consultations, the five met an old man by name Lyimo, Arnold’s former client who had quit fish farming.

In their conversations, they asked Mzee Lyimo why he quit. His response was the reason the five started producing protein fish feeds.

The old man told them it was expensive to feed the fish. Farmers often use sardines and soya to supplement nutrition for the fish, which is expensive for most small scale fish farmers. This encouraged them to brainstorm an affordable solution to that problem.

Referring back to their class notes, they noted down a number of alternative protein feeds that are environmentally friendly and sustainable, and eventually decided to seek single cell protein - a kind of protein derived from cells of microorganisms, such as yeast and fungi.

They chose to use the black soldier fly, usually found at dumpsters to produce the needed proteins fish feeds.

“The process is a circle on its own: we start by collecting rotten foods, preferably fruits because they rot faster. We cut them into small pieces and then leave them to rot,” James Manyama explains.

The black soldier fly has five stages; it starts off as an egg, and then it develops into the larval stage, prepupal stage, pupal and finally into an actual fly. The protein for the fish feed is made when the fly reaches the pupal stage.

The whole cycle takes between 10 to 28 days (from an egg to adult level).

While it has not been a long journey, it has not been a flawless one either.

Like many start-ups, Arnold and his colleagues have had their fair share of challenges which they have used in different ways as lessons in growing their business.

“Our company is growing with time. We keep the creativity up with the intent of reaching our targeted consumers, in this case small scale and large scale fish farmers. While this is working, we find it difficult to use our own hands to cut the fruits once they are collected from different places. There are machines that could simplify our work, but they cost a fortune,” Arnold hints.

Another challenge is that people lack proper awareness.

Arnold says many people believe their fish feed product is not very healthy for the fish because it is made of worms that are produced by black soldier flies.

“When we approach people to showcase our product in exhibitions, some people with limited understanding of how our product is made or works, do not give us a chance to share our knowledge about it,” Arnold says.

Through their work of aquaculture, they look forward to influencing the increase of the number of fish farmers in the country who will be able to access affordable fish feed while growing the fishing industry, if they are given a chance.

According to the 2021 research titled ‘A review of fish supply- demand in Tanzania’ conducted by the World Fish Centre, the estimated maximum sustainable yield of the country’s aquatic resources is roughly 750,000 tonnes, leaving approximately 300,000 tonnes yet to be produced.

The research details that aquaculture development has the potential to drastically increase fish supply.

This means that there is still a gap to be filled by aquaculture for the fishing industry to develop and meet the demands of the consumers.

This can be done by raising awareness about this kind of fish farming and how it can be done right.

The first Samaki Farms office was situated at Kibaha Kongowe, and after a while relocated to the UDSM campus.

The five founders are currently building their first production and research office at the Madale suburbs, in view to be the company’s headquarters.

“Our goal is to grow beyond where we currently are. We want to have a stable production facility. We are looking forward to being among the people who will lift the fishing industry and subsequently, the whole of aquaculture,” Arnold unravels.