Published On the Biafra Post
June 9, 2025
Imagine a farmers’ organisation selling catfish worth N4.5 billion in 2024. This is what the central sales record of the IDIPR Eriwe Farm Village, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, shows.
Although many people associate Ijebu Ode garri with its brand of Ijebu garri, it is home to 46 catfish clusters under the aegis of the Ijebu Development Initiative on Poverty Reduction (IDIPR) cooperative, producing about 2000 metric tonnes of fish annually.
The Eriwe Farm Village, which is located on 156 hectares of farmland acquired from the Ogun State Government, is considered as the biggest catfish farm cluster in West Africa.
It has 67 concrete fish tanks, 5,400 earthen ponds (dog-out) fish ponds, 2,720 boreholes, a modern fish processing centre with smoking kilns and several pumping machines, also powered by a solar energy system, and a modern feed mill.
It has over 600 farmers, down from 1327 due to COVID-19, inflation and production challenges.
Last year, the farmers produced 1,700 metric tonnes of catfish worth N4.5 billion. This is massive for a farmers’ organisation, which is now a model for other farmers’ organisations across the country.
The farm village witnessed accelerated growth and has continued to receive worldwide commendations, including from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and other international donor agencies.
Currently, the FAO is implementing the FISH4ACP project with funding from the European Union and the GIZ, building the capacity of the farmers, strengthening access to finance and facilitating research on black soldier fly with the University of Ibadan to come up with a cheap alternative feed for the farmers.
Dr Abubakar Usman, the FAO national project coordinator for FISH4ACP, said the black soldier fly research had shown good prospects and is currently at the farm trials level and may likely cut down feed cost by more than 20 per cent.
Marcus Adeniyi, the chief executive officer of IDIPR, told the Weekend Trust at the farm site in Ijebu Ode that the fish farmers’ cooperative societies operating at the Eriwe Farm Village had grown tremendously in assets and productivity.
He explained how the farm village was able to maintain a record system that allowed them to track the total volume of production and sales at every cluster by every farmer with the scale structure.
“We have a central sales account here. Whatever is sold in any of our farm villages goes to that central sales account,” he explained.
Adeniyi valued the current stock of fish at the farm village at N6 billion, adding that from their record, they have sold over 600 tonnes of fish in the first quarter of this year alone.
“If last year we only produced 1,700 metric tonnes and it was N4.5 billion, this year will surely exceed N5 billion or N6 billion,” he said, with production expected to hit over 2000 tonnes by the end of this year.
The farmers’ leader said the cooperative held training every quarter for newcomers, who pay N25,000 to enable them to join any of the cooperatives, where the farmer receives a plot of land at N15,000, which can accommodate two and half ponds.
After the farmer first stocks, he or she can obtain up to N2 million in loans from the cooperative at 18 per cent interest for a year, or 9 per cent interest rate for six months.
Oyinade Matthew Adeneye is a farmer with 12 ponds that have been producing catfish in the area since 2008.
He currently has over 30,000 fish at various stages. He told the Weekend Trust that the FISH4ACP project was able to strengthen the knowledge of fish management by addressing certain practices that eat deeper into their profit, particularly in the area of either ‘under’ or ‘over’ feeding.
Adeneye said the coming of the project had changed the dynamics of productions for him and increased his access to finance, which the FAO, through the project, helps to facilitate.
The FISH4ACP project is all about unlocking the sustainability of fisheries and agraculture value chains in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. It is being sponsored by the European Union and the German Federal Department of Cooperation and Development.
The project is in 12 countries (9 countries in Africa, 2 countries in the Caribbean, and 1 in the Pacific) with 40 million euros, but with additional funding from the government of Germany.
In Nigeria, the focus is on catfish value chain, which is being implemented across the six geopolitical zones.
“In the South-West, we are in Ogun State, in the South-South, we are in Delta State, in the South-East, we are in Anambra, in the North-West, we are in Kano, in the North-Central, we are in Kwara, and in the North-East, we are in Gombe,” Dr Usman said.
Dr Usman said that in the upgrading strategy the project had developed, feed is the most burning issue in the industry.
“Next to it (feed) is the seed (fingerlings). So, what we did was come up with a feed credit scheme to see how we can intervene in that area to reduce the cost of the feed. Then, alternatively, we are working on Black Soldier Fly, which is an alternative protein ingredient.
“So for the Black Soldier Fly, it is a non-conventional protein ingredient that is less competitive with humans and livestock. So, based on that, there is an ongoing trial here in Eriwe Cluster, where we have done the laboratory experiment at the University of Ibadan. Now, we are doing the field experiment here.
“So, once there is proof of concept; and we have seen that, there is going to be light at the end of the tunnel. The research is going on very well and is promising. So we are going to advocate at the end of this production cycle,” he explained.
When the final result is certified, the project coordinator said it would “advocate and ask farmers to channel or use the alternative feed ingredient, which will reduce the cost of the feed.”
“We are going to do the economy of scale after the trial. But based on the laboratory outcome we have, the Black Soldier’s Fly shows that it will reduce the cost of feed almost 20 per cent, based on the laboratory trial. Because we did the laboratory trial in concrete ponds, we now want to do it in the earthen ponds. We are coming to the level of the farmers,” the coordinator said.
Addressing EU, US traceability concerns
The issue of the international market is one of the major challenges or setbacks Nigeria has in the catfish value chain.
The FAO said it had been working with the Federal Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture to see how the country would be able to meet the EU and the USA conditions and criteria.
Dr Abubakar said the project was strengthening the critical areas in terms of recordkeeping in order to address the concerns of Europeans and the United States so that fish from the area could have access to the international market.
Although Nigeria can export fish harvested from its natural bodies of water, it cannot export cultured or farmed fish.
“They (EU, US) want to see all these records that have to do with the traceability of the entire production cycle for them to be able to know that there are no residues like antimicrobial resistance and so on. They want to ensure that the use of antimicrobials in the production has been controlled or eliminated,” he said.
Mrs Opeyemi Adeyemi is one of the people who buy fish from the farm regularly. She said one kg cost between N2,700 and N3,100, depending on the combination of the sizes that make up the kilogram.
Adeyemi said sales were a daily activity on the farm, which is well organised and very effective.
The farm organisation is a model, from which other farms or cooperatives in the country could learn.
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