Aqua culture, a fish system farming which involves the process of commercially breeding fish in a basket, cage or any other enclosure in an existing body of water such as a pond, lake, dam or river may not be as popular as fish farming on land, but those who are into it are raking in cool cash from the business.

Although cage culture in Nigeria can be traced back to the sixties, it is only recently gaining more attention and popularity from researchers and commercial producers. This can be explained by the current increase in fish demands by humans and animals, the declining wild fish stocks and the dwindling farm economy of the nation.

According to Mr. Yemi Mofikoya, a staff of Vitafoam, promoters of Vitafoam floating fish cage system, aqua-culture is playing an increasingly important role in world fish production, pointing out that going by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimation, an additional 37 million tonnes of fish per year will be needed by 2030 to maintain current levels of fish consumption for an expanded world population. Yemi added that an increase of 2 billion people annually however means that aqua-culture will need to produce nearly double of that; which is 85 million tonnes of fish per year to maintain current per capita levels.

Yemi who said the statistics for Nigeria reflects same, noted that fish consumption in Nigeria is as high as 1.55 million tonnes currently, while production however stands at about 511,000 metric tonnes. He stated that to correct the imbalance, there has to be the introduction of a system of fish production that is massive in terms of capacity, reasonable in terms of capital intensiveness, and workable in terms of the ecology and governance of a target location.

'This has led to the development of the one system of aqua-culture which has those features all rolled up in one: cage culture. Cage culture is not new to Nigeria and has in fact been tried in few parts of the country over the years.

What Vitafoam has done is to tap into the logic behind the recorded improvement or otherwise in these very few places where it has been successfully tried and sustained and thereby increased or altered their fish production margin. 'As such, we have a basis upon which we can build adaptation of the process and improvement on what is in existence. There have been questions about how this form of aqua-culture practice in the Nigerian livestock and fish farming systems but the obvious success recorded particularly in Lagos where we have carried out the project for several customers has answered these questions.

'In Lagos and other parts of the country where we have carried out the project for people, cage culture has come to be accepted because we are dealing with one of the most universal modes of commercial fish production in the world. Universal in the sense that the same principles of operation will apply no matter what part of the world the system is to be introduced as long as the mass of the pre-existing body of water is sufficient and the site selected is certified professionally', he said.

Explaining the advantages of the system, he noted that Nigeria's potential for successful fish cage farming is great going by the abundance of natural sources of water cutting across the many parts of the country already existing while serviceable dams also provide free flowing, aqua-culture friendly water in the drier parts of northern Nigeria. According to him, the rivers and estuaries in Nigeria especially in the Niger Delta are extremely suitable sites for fish cage farming.

Yemi who said with N250,000 and individual can invest in a small sized fish cage farming system while cooperative farming is more desirable for full scale fish cage farming because it involves millions of naira, pointed out that the most striking advantage of the system is that it offers farmers a chance to utilize existing water resources, a feature that adorns every coastal and borderline area of Nigeria's topography, adding that in combination with the bedrock concept, the technical automated systems of modern aqua-culture afford farmers and experts the opportunity of raising a large quantity of fish per volume of cage.

Another advantage he noted, is that the system tackles the worry of the high cost of production in relation to the somewhat low capital possessed by average farmers, arguing that the system allows several farmers to put resources together to conduct commercial production in a unit known as cooperative farming. Pointing out that the system leads to increased supply of fish, reduction in the decline of wild fish stocks due to over fishing and pollution, an alternative to land based operations, offers the opportunity of utilizing the vast existing water bodies, low cost compared to land based fish farming and easier to monitor.

'This system is highly profitable and the yield is about three times more with relatively low costs compared to the land based fishing farming. Vitafoam is harnessing all these advantages to improve fish production and improve the protein supply to consumers. The development, design and implementation of the Vitafoam floating fish cage system have strived to minimize costs to farmers while ensuring the safety of operators.

'Vitafoam cage is a platform of 6m x 6m x 0.6m high and 0.6m walkway. The net enclosure ensures zero loss of fish and excellent water circulation is four fold as follows. Outer most net is a heavy anti predator net of heavy trawl net.

Two inner nets for grow out. The innermost net is for the initial fingerling setting. Bottom netting is also four fold. The sectional platform is a solid poly urethane weighing 305kg delivering an outstanding low density and able to carry a maximum load of 10 tonnes at a time with 98 per cent floatation. The poly urethane is coated with our highly tested epoxy and marine grade coating.

'Anchoring of the floating pontoons is with special concrete anchors. Cleaning is with a brush followed by total cleaning after each cycle of five months. After installation, labour plus security is four people. More cages will not need more people For instance, 10 cages will need 10 people to manage. For aerial protection, we can also supply nets to cover the facility against birds and other predators.

The fish cage units can come in all shapes and sizes and can be tailored to suit individual farmer's needs.