Aqua-business con: Importance of Record keeping in commercial fish production

Importance of Record keeping in commercial fish production

The only source of information fish farmer can rely in assessing fish’s status and performance, it should be noted that fish are always under the water though farmer can observe his or her fish during feeding but only a small part of fish condition can be obtained during fish feeding.

Unfortunately, record keeping has became difficult issue for most of our fish farmers. The farmer can be very happy that his or her fish farm yields good profit but when observe closely, there are a lot of issues left behind that directly or indirectly have impact on fish, production cost and return of fish farm.

As long as one indulge in commercial fish production, record keeping is an unvoided activity and it is a continuous process in fish farming because circumstances on the farm change continuously, on a daily basis.

Record keeping help fish farmers in

v Evaluating performance and making future plans.

v Farm records can demonstrate if changes in management are improving or harming the fish’s performance and what the farms’ economic returns actually are.

v Farmer should note that farm records:

v They should be easy to complete

v Easy to update

v Enable quick decision making and facilitate quick action

v Filling in farm records should not be time consuming.

v Information should not have to be re-written several times, in several

forms or transferred more than once (Isyagi et al., n.d.).

The recommended production records for fish farms are the pond

management and feed record sheets without forget records of accounts for all expenditures and sales.

Note

The feed sheet is filled on a daily basis because fish are fed every day.

Below I have provided a samples of pond management, fish sampling and feed record sheets.

Note

Production records sheets are not fixed, farmer can design based on his or her visions and depend on the fish farm productions type.

POND RECORD FORM

District Owner’s Name

Division If Group, Number members

Location No. Men………………………………

Sub location No.women…………………………

Village Pond number ____ of _____ total owned

Date constructed………………………………….

Cost of construction……………………………

Pond surface area ………………………………

Stocking Records

DATE	SPECIES	NUMBER	SIZE	TOTAL WEIGHT	SOURCE (SUPPLIER)

SOURCE (SUPPLIER)……………………………………. HARVEST RECORDS

Pond Management Records: Inputs (Feeds and /or Fertilizers)

DATE	TYPE OF INPUTS	AMOUNT	FRECUENCY	COST	DATE FOR DEATH	NUMBER	SIZE	NUMBER DEAD

RECORD KEEPING CATCAT

FEED SHEET: Week of ………………………………..

Pond

Type feed

Amount

Alh

Iju

Jmos

Tot

kgs

Obser

Note

v Feeding response must be fill in grey box

v Feeding Response: E - excellent G - good F - fair P – poor

· E – Excellent – Fish are very active and come to feed immediately. The feed is all consumed by the fish within 15 to 20 minutes of feeding in grow-out.

· Ponds. Ideally a bag of feed in a grow-out pond should be consumed within 5 minutes.

· G – Good – Fish are less active and come to feed over a longer duration. Feed gets consumed over a longer duration.

· F – Fair – Fish are sluggish but do consume about three quarters of the feed. However, they do so in over more than 30 minutes.

· P – Poor – When feed is applied, fish do not come to feed. More than three quarters of the feed administered is left over.

For more information you can contact me through my

Email address:michaelkellya25@gmail.com or you can leave your comment in comment box.

Mobile: 255 752 1218 67