Tilapia is one of the popular fish in the market. It is key to feeding a growing population like Nigeria’s, which  eats mainly animal protein.

Despite that tilapia farming is lucrative, many farmers complain of low yields and low profits. Poor supply chain practices also affect the quality of farmed fish available to consumers, they added.

To solve the problems, stakeholders are pressing for support to increase the production of inexpensive, nutritious and safe tilapia.

These issues came at a workshop on tilapia cage culture held in Lagos. The event was organised by the Lagos State Government under World Bank-assisted Agro-Processing, Productivity, Enhancement, Livelihood Support (APPEALS) project.

The aim was to empower fish farmers to use cage culture to produce tilapia efficiently and sustainably. Specifically, it involved having good site management, working conditions for labourers, registering data and using good feed methods.

The Permanent Secretary, Lagos Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Olayiwole Onasanya, said the state government would continue to seek new ways of utilising its water bodies to develop aquaculture and also improve residents’nutrition.

He said the government was  working out ways of improving farmers’ standard of living via utilising natural endowments.

“We have to improve the nutrition of our people, as well as increase the income of farmers and their standard of living by having more fishes to cultivate to improve their income.

“With the ecology of Lagos State being a coastal state and endowed with water bodies, we, therefore, need to utilise those water bodies to improve fish production.

“From the Federal Government to all the states in the country, agriculture is the key to development,’’ the permanent secretary said.

He noted that Nigeria needed to reduce its foreign exchange spending on imported agricultural products.

“When you look at the funds expended in importing agriculture commodities and other food products, it is a lot. We can save the country some foreign exchange by improving our agriculture.By doing so, importation of food products will reduce, and there will be enough money to do other things like road construction,’’ Onasanya said.

The State Project Coordinator (SPC), Lagos APPEALS project, Mrs Oluranti Oviebo,  said it had identified three water bodies as safe for tilapia cage culture in the state.

Mrs Oviebo noted that an analysis had been conducted on the water bodies in Afowo in Badagry; Agbowa in Ikorodu and Ebute-Afuye in Epe.

She explained: ”Cage culture is practiced in the open water.You  grow fish but confined in a cage; but the earthen pond is the aquaculture, where you have your pond and there is water seepage.

“The project has carried out thorough investigations on these areas – Afowo in Badagry; Agbowa in Ikorodu-Epe and also Ebute-Afuye in Epe.

“It is not enough to say you are going into tilapia farming and then you will go and find any water body to start using. We took the samples of these water bodies and the soils so that it doesn’t look like a mere experiment.

“We have to be sure of the composition of these sites to ascertain their suitability to culture Tilapia,’’ the coordinator said.

Mrs Oviebo noted that fish farmers must have a minimum of three years’ experience in the business, with a very good business plan to access grants.

The coordinator said there was need to leverage on the country’s huge water bodies and diverse fish species.

“Even in the North, irrigation should not be the only use of our water bodies because you can still use the water of the cage to do your irrigation,’’ he said.

The Managing Director, Latia Global Investment Limited, Mr Nurudeen Tiamiyu, in his presentation on ‘’Water quality management’’, said there were technologies that could ease the business of cage culture.

He noted that farmers should take daily records of the water temperature, turbidity, water depth, movement, bottom type, cage size, shape, and mesh and happa net size among others.

A tilapia cage culture farmer, Mr Remi Ahmed, said the APPEALS project had created an opportunity for farmers to harness technologies in the fisheries sub-sector.

Ahmed said there were certain processes involved in cage culture, that would make tilapia cage culture easy and productive which farmers hitherto, took for granted.

“This event is to promote the cage culture of tilapia. There are lots of water bodies that are underutilised. Let me be fair to the northerners who use them for irrigation; but in the West, we do not use them for anything.”

“If you have the floater, the restriction, which is the cage you can put in the water, put your fish and start feeding it. It will reduce mortality because they are in their natural habitation,” Ahmed said.

Another  cage culture practitioner Mrs Abeni Oshinlolu described the programme as an enlightening.