based on the work of
Ulf N. Wijkstrom (FAO Consultant Economist)
M.M.J. Vincke (FAO Senior Aquaculturist)
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome, 1990
1. General
The purpose of the annex is to estimate the cost of commercially producing fingerlings of Clarias gariepinis in Ghana. Thus, the annex will not describe the hatchery or the management of the hatchery operations. That information is available in documents prepared by J. Janssen1 (see list of references), FAO Expert, reporting on the technologies used by him in Clarias hatcheries in the Central African Republic and Nigeria. Experiences in this technology have since then been obtained in Cote d'Ivoire (Boaké) and in Zaire.
The catfish Clarias gariepinis reproduces in ponds but infrequently and generally only few fingerlings are obtained. Thus, artificial reproduction is essential. Stimulating fertilization and spawning in aquaria or ponds have given unsatisfactory results, and hatcheries for Clarias now rely on induced spawning. As it has not been possible to obtain milt from males, these are generally sacrificed and the milt mixed with the eggs.
The larvae initially require live food, which is either supplied from pond produced zooplankton, or phytoplankton, or in the form of Artemia. However, the high expense and need to import Artemia has triggered efforts to develop larval rearing technology which does not rely on artemia.
2. Size
A hatchery should be able to handle a fair number of fish ponds. In this example, it is designed to deliver 1 million fingerlings in a year. This should suffice for stocking a total of 50 hectares twice a year, using a stocking rate of one catfish (and one O. niloticus) per square metre.
3. Installations
Water. A small hatchery designed to produce about 65.000 larvae per week, would need about 14 cubic metres of good water per day, for brood-fish containers, incubation gutter and spare tanks. The water should be obtained through gravity flow in order to keep expenditures down. However, in order to be able to manage efficiently three hectares of ponds, the water supply should not average less than 100 1/min.
Building. The building need only cover some 12 square metres. It may consist essentially of a thatched roof, with the rest being open, but screened.
Equipment. A detailed description of containers, incubation gutter, tanks and accessories is given in Reference 24.
Ponds for zoo-plankton. Experience in Central African Republic indicates that to produce 0.5 million fingerlings year, about 1 ha of ponds is needed for the production of zooplankton. Thus, for this purpose this hatchery requires about 2 hectare of ponds.
Ponds for grow-out of larvae. The standard is a production of 12.500 fingerlings per 100 metre square per year. Thus, in order to produce one million (1.000.000/12.500 × 100 =) 8.000 m2 of grow-out ponds are required.
Total pond surface area would therefore be of the order of (2.0 + 0.8 =) 3 hectares.
4. Investment
The cost of construction 3 hectares of ponds will be of the order of (3.0/0.4 × 0.5 =) C. 3.75 million. The building, plus the tanks, and miscellaneous equipment should cost no less than one million Cedis, and one pick-up about Cedis 5 million. Thus, in total, the investment for the hatchery equipment and transport will not be less than about C. 10 million.
Depreciation of ponds at 5 %, equipment at 20 % and the vehicle at 25 % gives a yearly cost of about Cedis 1.6 million, most of which is for the vehicle.
So far no costs have been attributed to land or to the cost of capital. If a return of 16 % is demanded on the capital invested then the yearly costs will double to Cedis 3.2 million.
5. Operating costs
Salaries, feed and transport will be the main costs of operating the hatchery.
The hatchery will need to be staffed by one skilled, experienced hatchery manager, three helpers and two watchmen. Placing salaries for the hatchery manager at C 25 000 per month, for the assistants at 18.000 and the watchmen at 15.000, the yearly salary bill will amount to about Cedis 1.1 million.
Feed costs are minor. The brood-stock will be need to be fed throughout the year at about 1 % of body-weight daily. For a brood-stock of 500 fish, at 0.5 kg each, the total yearly feed consumption comes to about (500 × 0.5 × 0.01 × 365 =) 912 kgs. At a price of C 100 per kg this expense is C. 91.000 per year.
The costs of feed for fingerlings is partly off-set by the growth of zoo-plankton in the 2 hectares of ponds assigned for this purpose. In addition, however, additional feeds are required, such as artemia.
Transport can become a very costly item for the hatchery. All attempts must be made to rationalize the use of the pick-up to keep these costs down. Assuming a weekly run of 400 kms, the costs could be of the order of (400 × 52 × 150 =) Cedis 1.32 million.
Thus the costs can be summarized:
| • | capital costs, depreciation | 1.600.000 |
| • | interest | 1.600.000 |
| • | Operating costs, salaries: | 1.100.000 |
| • | , feed: | 91.000 |
| • | , transport: | 1.320.000 |
| TOTAL: | 5.711.000 | |
This total should be seen as an order of magnitude only. The cost is likely to be somewhere between Cedis five to eight million.
6. Conclusion
The actual cost of the fingerlings, ex-hatchery, will depend on several factors, but one of the major ones is the size at which the fingerlings will be sold from the hatchery. The larger the fingerlings, ex-hatchery, the longer each has to remain at the hatchery and the higher the feed costs, but more important, the larger the installations need to be. The initial investment will grow, as will the financial costs of the hatchery.
However, as a preliminary conclusion, it seems that the fingerlings could be delivered ex-hatchery at a cost of production below (Cedis 6 million divided by one million fingerlings) C 6 per fingerling. The cost of transport would then have to be added to arrive at the real cost of the fingerling, delivered at the growout farm.
Thus, a price of between C. 8 and 10 per fingerling, exhatchery, seems reasonable.
