fish feed machine for my fish farm

Entrepreneur

About Me

Hey there, I am Martin Mbugua Nguru, my friends call me Marto. I am Kenyan by birth. I come from a family of two, that is my mother and I however I have a lot of relatives so we are such a small family. I have cousins who I consider to be like my brothers and sisters that I was not so lucky to have due to some unavoidable circumstances.
The part of the country I come from is famous for producing sweet coffee and tea that is usually blended with other coffee or tea from different parts of the world to improve the quality. My mother and I leave on my grandparent’s farm, they are my heroes and they inspire me a lot. She is a dairy cattle farmer. She has three cows. That’s how she pays the bills.
Anyway, I am a student at The Technical University of Kenya; my school is in the heart of Nairobi town. I am currently doing my bachelors degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, hoping to graduate this December and hopeful start helping out in my community. What I can probably say about the choice of course I took is because I have a passion for electricity and technology in general. Since childhood I have always been baffled about how people innovate and create gadgets that make life much easier and fun. Such things are what make me push on harder even when time get rough at school and at home too. God willing I am planning to do a master in the same field if I get the opportunity to do so. With my education I am inclined to think that I can help the community and even mentor if not inspire others around me.
Since I was brought up in a farm, my business is in the same field. I rare fish in a pond. I began the business last year 2013 during the Easter holidays. The need to start the business arose when it downed on me that in a year’s time I will be on the verge of completing my studies; with the high unemployment rate it would be difficult to achieve financial stability without a job. That is when I decided to take the risk and venture into the business. I got help from a few of my friends at home and dug out the pond down by the river side. This took us about a week. It was fun doing all the construction and pull off the whole construction without any previous know how on a similar project. I stocked the pond with three hundred fingerlings. I was able to harvest two hundred fish during the December holidays which I sold at the local market. With the revenue I was able to purchase new fingerlings and feeds. I have a plan of expanding the business and a have another pond with a larger capacity since I have seen it is a promising venture. With your assistance I will be able to accomplish my goals and objectives. I plan to use the revenue to from the expanded business to save some money to get me started on my masters. Thank you in advance.

My Business

Hey there, I am a Martin Mbugua Nguru, a student and also in the business of fish farming. I have my business setup at home. It is basically a pond dug out down by the river side. It is approximately twenty five feet wide by fifty feet long with a capacity of holding three hundred fish. The type of fish in my pond is a local fish species that goes by the name tilapia. This kind of fish only takes six months to mature with consistent and correct feeding. I usually feed them twice daily. Tilapia is a local delicacy not only in my home area but also in Nairobi town. You can find it in typically every restaurant being served with either chips or ugali ( a staple meal in Kenya).
The demand of white meat is again on the rise due to the health benefits being advised by the doctors and nutritionist. The trend is changing where people only used to prefer red meat which posses’ great risks to your health with continued use without caution. Again there has been an extensive campaign by the government for people to increase the consumption of the produce where fish has not been traditionally the source of protein for some local communities. Competitors who sell beef and mutton have been experiencing an increase in the cost of their products due to farmers passing on the high cost of feeds to the butcheries who in turn extend the cost to the consumer. People are preferring alternatives which are fish or chicken.
Fish farming is profitable since the supply and demand curve is favorable. The demand greatly surpasses the supply not only in the area around me but within the country and even outside the country. The worry of the market flooding with produce is not probable. The other thing that makes it profitable is the fact that the initial cost of establishing the pond or structure is not high and the investment breaks even with the first sell of the batch of fish in stock. Fish feeds are also readily available with the option of even being able to mix different supplements like soya, cotton seeds, bone meal and fish meal. This self made mix serves the same purpose as the fish feeds being purchased at the market. The other advantage is that having fish by the river side cuts the cost of purchasing the feeds by half. I usually spend one thousand two hundred to feed my fish each month. Within the six months by the time the fish are ready for harvesting I will have spent only seven thousand and two hundred shillings only. Having stoked my pond with three hundred fingerling, I expect to harvest two hundred fish of acceptable size in the market which I can sell at about one hundred shillings and the remaining fish can be sold at fifty shillings. The expected turnover is twenty five thousand shillings. Minus the transport expenses (mostly about one thousand five hundred shillings), cost of feeding and taxes to the county at the market (eight hundred shillings); the remaining amount which is about fifteen thousand shillings is enough to restock the pond at the cost of three thousand and the rest of the money is put into saving.
The risk involved with fish farming is predators that feed on fish. I have curbed this fencing the fish pond with mesh wire around the perimeter and with a net on top to prevent bird such as the king fisher from disturbing the fish. Generally it is a nice business.

Loan Proposal

I plan on using the loan money to buy a fish feeds making machine. This machine will have the capacity to transform the required fish feeds into pellets. Feeds inform of pellets is easier to manage and the surplus produced will be packed in 10kg sucks and sold to other fish farmers. Hence USD 200 will be used to buy a single phase induction motor, USD 200 will buy the supporting machine that transforms powered fish feeds into pellets. USD 50 will be used to buy sucks and other miscellaneous materials for successful production.

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