ibironkeeniola MANAGING Director and Country Manager, Aller Aqua Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Nurudeen Lasisi, has urged farmers to adopt innovative marketing techniques in the catfish value chain, in order to optimise returns on their investments.
Lasisi, made the plea while addressing farmers and stakeholders at the 2019 workshop for fish farmers organised by Aller Aqua, in various locations across Nigeria; Ibadan, Benin, Warri, Port Harcourt, Aba, Lagos and Abeokuta.
The 2019 Aller Aqua annual famers workshop was themed, “Innovative Catfish Marketing: Call for Women and Youths Involvement”.
While insisting that Nigeria is a major producer of catfish, Lasisi also noted that aquaculture farmers are not as wealthy as expected, due to the presence of fish mongers who benefit heavily, thereby compounding farmers’ inability to get to consumers directly.
He said ” We got feedback after 2018 training and we realised that farmers needed marketing channels for proper distribution of catfish that are locally produced.
“This is the reason why we are focusing on training farmers on marketing value chain, to diversify their markets using innovative techniques that will improve the returns on their investments”.
Farmers at the workshop were trained on the topics: Strategic management techniques for catfish farming; Practical fish processing as a business; Sustainable financing for Aquaculture and; Management of diseases of Aquaculture.
In-depth discussions were also held with stakeholders through panel of discussants, involving representatives of the PM and Director of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Lagos state; Coordinator for World Bank Appeals Project, Lagos.
Present also at the event, were officials from the Development Finance Office of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as well as the National President of Catfish and Allied Fish Farmers Association of Nigeria (CAFFAN) and the National Vice President of National Fish Association of Nigeria (NFAN).
This year’s Annual Farmers Workshop which was conducted in collaboration with the Development Finance Office of the CBN, had in attendance over 1760 fish farmers and entrepreneurs trained across the designated locations.
SOURCE:TRIBUNE