This article is a follow up to my earlier report titled “Reducing Catfish Feeding Costs (A Secret Weapon). At the end of that piece, I indicated my intention to address objections I anticipated would arise about the workability of the ideas advocated in it.

In case you have not read the first write-up, click here to do so, to understand where I’m coming from and how we got here. In that preceding paper, I discussed research findings (by African scientists under African settings) of viable low cost alternatives to expensive, and increasingly less available key ingredients – like maize, fish meal etc – for catfish feed production.(To get a full PDF version, with clickable links to referenced research papers and useful websites, send email to info at cbstudio dot biz.)

This Article Is Based On Real Life Case Studies

Nothing is better than real life proof to back the workability of new ideas proposed for adoption. Indeed, in our society, social pressures make people unwilling to invest effort in “testing” research findings. They want ready-to-use ideas. My understanding of this mental attitude in many farm business owners out here, informed my decision to provide this case-study based follow up.

In this article, I narrate 2 real-life Nigerian “Success Stories” – that demonstrate how resourcefulness, creative thinking, a little persistence, and a willingness to adapt, can help anyone overcome unfavorable or unexpected circumstances.

I also go further, to offer suggestions based on the success stories that you can use, to achieve your goal of adopting low cost alternative ingredients for making the rations you feed your catfish, in order to record substantial savings.

Don’t Try To Kill A Fly With A Hammer

Sometimes it pays to keep things simple. Most of the farm businesses in our society fall in the category of small or medium (even micro). Yet, they produce most of the farm produce consumed in this country. It goes without saying that they will not have the resources to run their own analytical laboratories.

But that does not mean they cannot successfully carry out trials using the identified alternative feed ingredients. We must learn to think out of the box.

And who says you have to build your own labs? What stops you from forming an alliance with a company that has interests to sponsor your efforts, for instance?

What’s more, a lot can be done before the need to test and analyze becomes necessary.

We must learn to operate the way developed societies do. Our farmers need to explore opportunities to collaborate with companies and institutions with a vested interest in utilization of their output. Need specific ideas? Call me.

Two Case Studies You Can Relate To

I have seen Nigerian based operations successfully do what I propose you do. In both cases you are about to read, I had the unique privilege of being an insider, working as an a actively involved employee.

I am hoping you can take away enough to help you implement an action plan for your farm business, to successfully adopt one or more lower cost alternative feed ingredients.

a. Wines Made From 100% Pawpaw Pulp in Matori, Lagos.

Early in 1994, I worked for 6 months as a trainee Sales Coordinator in a medium-sized wine manufacturing company in Matori area of Lagos. Pawpaw fruits were processed – via simple brewing, fermentation, and aging – into a popular range of fruit-based wines distributed (by GB Ollivant) across the country.

All we had in the small factory was a simple laboratory used to check key quality parameters at a basic level like color, sugar level etc. Uninhabited expanses of interstate land heavily populated with wild pawpaw plants, provided a seemingly endless supply of the factory’s major input.

The enterprising owner also wisely got people to collect and supply the fruits to his factory for a fee.

Now, get this: At the gate, we would negotiate a lower price based on over ripe pawpaw fruit in the pickup supply truck. The suppliers had no way of knowing that the over ripe ones were the ones we preferred for our process.

But since they knew no one would buy that from them anyway, they were glad to still earn income for supplying what would be considered “spoiled” fruit elsewhere. As a result, they always left happily, to return with another supply few days later. It’s not surprising that almost 2 decades after, this company is still going strong!

b. Switching From 20% To 80% Sorghum – With Massive Cost Reductions (Lessons from Guinness Nigeria)

As a young brewer in Guinness Nigeria Plc, I had the unique opportunity of participating in the amazing series of events (between 1995 and 1997) that led the company to gradually replace expensive and less available maize, with much cheaper (and more available) sorghum in the brewing process.

This became necessary due to the government’s ban on wheat importation. Apart from brewing plant (and process) modifications, the main thing done was to conduct a series of “trials”. Increased amounts of sorghum were added to the brews, to replace Maize, and the final product tested, with steps being taken to identify needed changes. Eventually they got it right. And the savings were enormous.

What You Can Do

Both case studies prove it can be done. You could argue that you do not have the resources Guinness did. I would counter that the owner of the wine company started as a very small one-man operation in his office, based on this approach.

And that’s one way to go about this. Look for ingredients that are not likely to be in demand for use by too many other interests, and work them into the preparation of your catfish feed. The research findings discussed in my first paper offer a useful starting point.

What is crucial is your mental attitude – you have to be willing to give it a try, with an open mind. The alternative is to complain and wait – probably futilely – for the government or some other group to come up with a solution. That’s not happened in decades. You can take your destiny into your own hands.

Here Are A Few Suggestions:

1. Explore Strategic Partnerships: Approach private sector companies that own labs for possible use of their facilities. Explore ways to offer win-win relationship e.g. assure them of preferential supply at special rate. You’ll be amazed what people assured of useful benefits will agree to. I say this from personal experience.

2. Collaborate With Others: Consider exploring the use of the alternative ingredients as a group. You can do this alone, or work at it with a group of fellow farmers. Get together with like minded farm business owners and discuss ways to conduct real-life pilot scale trials on your farms.

As a farm business owner you are an authority at what you do. It is YOU who should be telling the rest of the world – including the researchers from the academia – what works for your animals and your farm.

Your willingness to conduct pilot trials will equip you to better advise them about what you need from them to make their research findings work better for you.

3. Approach Farm Service Centers: Going by what I see the Lagos state government doing out here, this could be a wise thing to do.

Getting support from the Farm Service Centre located along Oko-Oba road, towards pursuing this strategy could make it easier to make 1 and 2 (above) happen. The government operated centre could facilitate the process.

Considering that there are already efforts being made by government to develop alternatives to traditional ingredients, this may not be a far fetched idea.

4. Liaise With Research Publishers: You can also reach out to the researchers who published the findings mentioned in my first paper which led to this.

In many of the papers (which I linked to in the PDF version of my paper), the corresponding author’s contact email is usually supplied right at the top. These people did the research because they want to help farmers succeed better.

I believe they’ll be excited to work with you, in implementing the findings on your farm. It would be a win-win for you, and them. And the country – or indeed the continent – as a whole would benefit!

Need Help?

Get in touch if you’d like to get more specific details of how you can go about putting the ideas offered in this paper (and the one I wrote preceding it) to use it.

Good luck!