Tanzania's Suma JKT rolls out fish farming technology

Sustainable Indoor Recirculating Aquaculture System. Photo | Internet

What you need to know:

The technology dubbed Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) uses tanks of different sizes that can grow up to 1,600 fish in just two months.


Dar es Salaam. The investment corporation of the National Service (Suma JKT) has started rolling out its latest fish farming technology which enables entrepreneurs to grow the fish in small areas.

The technology dubbed Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) uses tanks of different sizes that can grow up to 1,600 fish in just two months.

The project idea was introduced in 2015 and a research was conducted in 2017 and now it has officially started operating, project manager Lt Joseph Lyakurwa said yesterday at the ongoing 42nd Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF).

“We came up with the idea, after discovering that majority of Tanzanians was faced with the challenge of accessing too much water in a small area. These tanks enable Tanzanians start a fish entrepreneurship business by growing as many fish as possible in a small area,” he said.

According to him, not many people who have access to lakes or oceans but with the tanks, they can still fish.

Explaining, he said that the recirculating aquaculture tanks have a filter system that circulates the water and makes the environment clean for rearing fish.

He noted that, since the project started in March, they have built 40 tanks as per order, which are all sold.

“If we didn’t have the filter system the tanks would only be able to grow 30 fish for the duration as compared to one with filter, due to the air systems installed.”

He noted that the filter system, flashes out 5 litres of water on a daily basis to remove waste that would normally make the fish sick.

Further he noted that the tanks have an electricity backup system that uses battery and invertor which goes up-to 15 hours invade of power shortage, as the system needs to run on electricity for 24 hours.

He explained that a Sh5 million tank has a capacity of 1600 fish of 200kg in two months compared to a Sh10 million tank whose capacity is 3200 fish of 400kg in every two months.