Yellow Fish Farms Acquires Solar Tech with ₦5m Lagos Agrithon Grant

News in Brief:

-Yellow Fish Farms used a ₦5 million Lagos Agrithon grant to install a solar-powered hatchery and boost catfish production.

-While the investment has improved efficiency and cut costs, the farm still faces challenges with manual operations and limited supply capacity.

Lagos Agrinnovation, an agribusiness initiative backed by the state government, has showcased how its 2024 grant is helping a fish farm reach new heights. In a video shared on X, the hackathon revisited the progress of Yellow Fish Farms, one of its recent beneficiaries.

Founded by Donald Obazee, the agricultural company based in Ikorodu, Lagos, cultivates juvenile catfish in earthen and artificial ponds. It received a ₦5 million grant in the first edition of the Lagos Agrithon.

Obazee revealed that the company used the funds to acquire a locally fabricated, solar-powered recirculatory hatchery. This system continuously cleans and recirculates water through filtration, aeration, and disinfection. It creates a controlled environment with minimal water and energy use—removing waste such as fish faeces, ammonia, and carbon dioxide while maintaining high oxygen levels for optimal fish growth.

Yellow Fish Farms also installed a 3.5 kVA solar system to power lighting and water pumps on the farm. “This has helped us increase production and reduce the cost of doing business,” Obazee explained. “Both the company and farmers in our cluster benefit from the reduced price of fingerlings.”

Financial Limitations Still Exist

The grant has helped the fish company overcome some challenges, but several issues persist. Although Obazee stated that the company’s staff strength has grown from five to sixteen people, manual labour still slows down production.

“We have about 100 to 150 outgrower farmers in our cluster,” he said. “But we can only supply about 100,000 to 300,000 juveniles at a time to between 10 and 15 farmers.”

It takes nearly an hour for one person to count 1,000 juveniles for farmers at the point of sale, the company head noted. He added that the next step for growth is to acquire a counting machine to automate the process.

Nevertheless, Obazee acknowledges the support the grant provided and the network he gained by joining the Lagos Agrinnovation Club. Through the platform, he has connected with agribusiness professionals, policymakers, young agripreneurs, and innovators who are helping him shape his business.

A Sustainable Model for Financing

This initiative, supported by the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), serves as a model that other Nigerian states should emulate. Its financing scheme is helping to scale agribusinesses across the food system. Moreover, following up with beneficiaries to assess how they utilise financial support is a necessary step to ensure proper fund allocation. The continually expanding network of like-minded entrepreneurs further enhances the program’s sustainability.