CHOICE OF LOCATION/TYPE OF SYSTEM
Choice of Location
Making a right choice of location will reduce infrastructural cost and eventually lead to increased profitability.
Things to consider in choosing location:
· Accessibility to the Market
· Ready availability of Good Quality and Quantity of Water
· Nature of Land Area
· Access Road
· Ready availability of Public Power Supply
Accessibility To The Market
If you site your fish farm in a rural or underdeveloped area, one of the challenges will be evacuating your fish to the market. The buyers may not want to pay the going market price for your product. Some may even insist that for them to come and buy from you, you will bear the cost of transportation/ provide the transport for evacuating the fish to the market. This is additional cost that will further reduce your profit. During raining seasons, it becomes more difficult for buyers to get to your location.
Ready Availability of Good Quality Water
The importance of good quality and quantity of water cannot be over stressed in Fish Farming. This has direct relationship to choice of location. If you choose a water logged area (swampy) because of low cost of land acquisition, you will be faced with high cost of infrastructural development and the ability to get good quality water. This will in turn affect your output, profitability and breakeven period.
Nature Of Land Area
It is better to acquire half a plot of land in a well developed area than to go and acquire an acre of land in the rural area or water logged area.
Low cost of infrastructural development will more than compensate for the premium price for the land. There will be no issue with access to market or accessibility to location. You are almost assured of good quality water. What you may have to deal with, is steady availability of public electricity supply if you opt for a re-circulatory system and you are in any of the developing countries.
Let me tell you my personal experience. I indicated in a previous discuss that I used vacant space in compound and that my area is water logged. Also, I started with earthen pond.
· The cost of developing the earthen ponds were unusually high contrary to expectation
· The water parameters varies considerably during the culture period due to the brackish nature of the water in the area. A lot of pollutants in the water due to indiscriminate discharge of waste into the water in the area.
· The water PH varies greatly and water varies between fresh water and saline (salty) water.
· When the issue of unskilled employees are combined with all the above, the result is low production output. The output was far below the input resulting in outright loss.
However, this does not mean that others with earthen ponds did not make profit. At the end of every dark tunnel there is always light. You will have to adopt the habit of going the extra mile in order to succed.
