Urban Agriculture: Unsafe fish farming practices in Aladeowo, Omi-Adio.

If you have been to the furthermost part of Zone D in Aladeowo/Aba nla Estate in a while, you
probably will not recognize the setting anymore. With the increase in fish farming practice, you
will see Earthen ponds littered about alongside residential buildings. Apart from the fact that fish
ponds are littered about, poultry offals were being fed to Catfish which pose harm to residents.

The activities of these fish farmers has led to clashes between residents as well as the landlord
Association over the unsafe way they practice fish farming in the area. An instance of such
clash was when they built an Earthen fish pond in front of a resident's house. This led to a
hullabaloo which was later settled by the Landlord Association.

Meanwhile, fish farming in Aladeowo did not just start. It started as far back as twenty years
ago.

Mr Felix Tokede, the Zonal Secretary of Aladeowo/Aba nla landlord Association during an
interview said Fish Farming began before he came to live in Aladeowo here in Omi-adio, which
is about twenty years ago.

Mr Felix said there were few Earthen ponds in the estate at that time as compared to now and
they were situated far away from residential areas. Fish feed was the only type of feed fed to
fish.

"With time I think the cost of fish feed made fish farmers to add maggots from carcasses and
cow dung and later animal proteins such as offals from ruminants, and poultry waste to their
ration. Pungent smells from these animal proteins often rent the air, these led residents close to
these Earthen fish ponds to call the attention of the Landlord Association

"In fact, during the landlord meeting a resident who is a pastor said he fell ill as a result of the
smell" He added

In conversation with the Zonal Chairman of the Aladeowo/ Aba nla landlord Association, Oloye
Sola Abraham said initially he was not aware of the air pollution caused by the unsafe activities
of fish farmers because he was rarely around.
However, he took action immediately it came to his notice.

"I and some executives went to meet these farmers and we told them to practice safe fish
farming. We could not wait long at the farmstead where the animal proteins were kept because
the smell was unbearable. Inhaling such pungent smell could be injurious to the health

"When we saw that they persisted in this act, we wrote two warning letters to them emphasizing
that their activities would be reported to environmental officials, woléwolé. We also met some of
these farmers in person to tell them this. After this strict warnings we noticed some adjustments.
Eventhough they kept on using animal proteins they used fresh ones."
Oloye Sola Abraham concluded that as long as the activities of the fish farmers do not affect
residents, they can go ahead with their activities in Aladeowo.

Mr Yomi Fapohunda, who is a resident and also knowledgeable in fish rearing has this to say
"Fish farmers feed their fish "ration" when they are young then they switch to chicken offals at a
particular stage to meet their nutritional needs. They need chicken offals at that stage because
they have grown bigger and need feed that is filling and nutritional. Although there are feed that
could be fed to fish from start to finish they use chicken offals to cut cost and meet the
nutritional requirements of their fish"

He emphasized that it was chicken offals gotten from a popular poultry factory (Zartech) that are
being fed to the fish and not offals from ruminants.

Since he rents out ponds to fish farmers, he mentioned that "I don't want a situation in which an
epidemic breaks out as a result of the activities of my tenants. Flies that have formerly perched
on leftover offals can cause harm to the health of residents. If leftover offals are to be used it
should be far away from residential areas to avoid outbreak of epidemic and foul smell

"When I saw that the smell from the leftover offals used became unbearable for me and other
residents, I called my former tenants telling them to stop using chicken offals and insisted that
they use fish feed from start to finish. I told them if they could not afford imported feeds they
should use the local ones from feed mills. Meanwhile my new tenants do not use offals, they
use ration from start to finish. Offals is no longer allowed on my farm"

When asked if building Earthen fish ponds among residential buildings is appropriate he said
"These lands cannot serve any other purpose than what it is being used for now. They are
swamps and using them as ponds is the only option we have, if we do not want it to be useless.
Government would not say otherwise unless the activities of fish farmers pose harm to people
around"

"Urban Agriculture has become the new normal, and it should be done appropriately. It only
becomes unfair if activities of the farmer affects residents around such farm" he concluded.

In an interview with Mr Kenneth Odoemenam, the CEO of a Cat Fish enterprise, mentioned that
citing a fish pond in a residential area is not advisable because of poor waste water
management systems in residential areas. Concrete, Tarpaulin, and Rubber Tanks require a
fish farmer to constantly change the water used. And since most residential areas are not well
planned, they lack good drainage system and for this reason, water from such ponds pollutes
the air and water bodies and the smell too can affect residents. However, unless there is a good
drainage system and the fish ponds are very few in number and small in size it is not safe to
situate a Fish pond in a residential area.
He added that using poultry waste in fish farming is also not advisable for other form of Fish
farming expect Earthen ponds. Earthen ponds, according to him are natural water bodies and
decays from the waste go down into the soil to decompose into maggots that could be eaten by
fish. In other forms, it is impossible for the waste to decay and instead leads to spread of
diseases.

"Poultry offals can only be used for Earthen ponds, but for any other type of pond it can cause
diseases to Fish and people alike. It should be prepared properly too before usage to avoid
diseases break out." He reteirated

Furthermore, Mr Kenneth, when asked if Fish ponds add water to well debunk this believe
saying draining water from ponds indiscriminately affect the quality of water once such water
finds its way into the well.

Speaking on Urban Agriculture, he said Technology makes Urban Agriculture work, however,
they are expensive and need power to function. Therefore it might be difficult to practice Urban
Agriculture under Fish farming in this clime.