“Fish farming is my mother’s business,” says Nurudeen Quadri, a 38-year-old fish farmer from Ijebu-Ode in southwest Nigeria as he enters Eriwe farm village. “I have been coming here since I was very small. When I graduated from university, I started my own farm.”

Located at two hours’ drive east of Lagos, Nigeria’s sprawling business capital, Eriwe farm village is the site of one of the countries’ biggest catfish clusters. Along the banks of a little river lie the ponds of nearly 600 fish farmers, organized in cooperatives as part of the Eriwe fishers’ union. These farmers produced some 2 000 tonnes of catfish in 2022.

It is seven o’clock in the morning, when Nurudeen’s two workers switch on the water pumps and fresh water starts pouring into the fish ponds. “It gives the fish oxygen to open their appetite before they are fed in the afternoon,” Nurudeen says.

With the workers, he does maintenance and repairs in and around the ten ponds of his farm, two of which are used for rearing fingerlings. During harvest time, they sell the fish.

Nurudeen produces nearly 50 tonnes of catfish per year. Despite the rising cost of feed and limited access to finance, this work allows him to sustain himself and his family.“I can make a good living out of it,” he says.