Stephen is amongst 50 Kenyan fish farmers who have benefited from an all-value-chain-inclusive program that was aimed at increasing both their productivity and profitability through skills upgrades and availing of quality inputs, financing, and market.
The program is called; An Integrated Approach to Enhancing Tilapia Farmer Productivity and Market Linkages. The two-year ecosystem-based project was designed by Lattice and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and brought together veteran value chain players with 50 smallholder farmers spread across Western and Eastern Kenya right at the centre.
The value chain players included; one feed manufacturer and supplier, two fingerling suppliers, an aquaculture training institution (Our Lattice Aquaculture Academy), two microfinance institutions, and a fish off-taker. The idea was to have the smallholder farmers trained on best aquaculture practices (BAP) that enabled them to appreciate both the technical and business angles of their fish farming.
They were linked to input suppliers, who through their commitment to the project, became input sellers but also service providers by ensuring that the products they delivered to the farmers were of high quality and did farm follow-ups to ascertain efficiency.
To cater to the farmers’ aquaculture financial needs, two financial institutions were included in the ecosystem. The project adopted the “take aquaculture to the banks” approach where the institutions received training on aquaculture value chains and were made aware of all the aquaculture business scenarios. This enabled them to tailor-make products that were palatable to fish farmers. The farmers on the other hand were trained on the requirements by financial institutions to make them “credit ready”.
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