THE AGROPRENEUR: this agropreneur proves you can make a quarter million from fish farming

Daniel Kimani’s farm in Kinja, Kinangop, occupies a quarter of an acre and has eight ponds, each with a five-metre diameter.

They hold 3,000 rainbow trout, which go for Sh800 per kilo.

He can rear up to 20,000 fingerlings, which he sells at Sh36 each. In an eight-month season, the ponds produce 750 kilos of fish, with a kilo going for Sh1,000, according to his latest sales figures from two months ago.

A few metres from the fish farm is Posterity Farm, where he practises aquaponics (method of growing crops and fish together). Here, he has a 30-by-7.5-metre greenhouse where he grows strawberries using the ammonia released by the fish.

The pond had 6,000 fingerlings and about 800 fully grown catfish as at last month.

The strawberries in the greenhouse are mounted on plastic towers filled with porous materials.

The pond water is pumped through the towers and is purified by the porous materials, leaving rich ammonia for use by the berries.

He produces 750 kilos of strawberries a month, and with a kilo going for Sh300, he earns Sh225,000 monthly.

Kimani (below left with the writer) holds a BSc in Fisheries from Moi University, and uses his skills to train fish farmers around the Mt Kenya region. “I spend a lot of time training people to start similar projects,” he says. “A candle loses nothing by lighting another.”