Hello, I'm Wankio Meremo. I'm a holder of a Masters degree in Limnology. I love reading and writing about research works both locally and internationally. I can provide sufficient content for a given topic within a short period. With my excellent understanding of English language I can write to reach a wider community of people who can read and understand English. I can write research proposals, dissertations and theses in all given guidelines. I'm the best candidate for research writing in this platform.
Some of my articles are attached in the link below;
Changes in water quality parameters and their effect on zooplankton distribution in a shallow bay of Lake Victoria, Kenya
Other sample works are as below
Aquaculture systems in Kenya
Fish farming engage different production systems depending on the scale and level of production per farmer. In Kenya, aquaculture production systems comprise of majorly extensive and semi-intensive systems. Highly intensive systems are practiced by a relatively smaller number of farmers (Opiyo et al., 2018). Currently, most farmers are shifting from subsistence farming to a commercial fish farming with great financial returns of up to US$ 11,000 annually (Mbugua, 2008). Over 90% of fish farmers in Kenya practice semi-intensive systems while about 3% practice the highly intensive systems. The low number of farmers doing intensive system could be as a result of high cost of production in terms of electricity and quality feeds that are expensive (FAO, 2016). In the semi-intensive systems, production ponds are fertilized using organic manure from livestock (chicken, goats, pigs, rabbit and cattle) to facilitate growth of algae which serve as natural food for fish. Supplementary feeds mostly cereals (maize, wheat and rice bran) and low protein formulated feeds are also used to supplement the natural food in the production ponds (Munguti et al., 2014). Most aquaculture farms in Kenya are integrated. The integration is done either with livestock (chicken, goats, pigs, rabbit and cattle) or crops (vegetables, rice) (Ogello et al., 2013).
The aquaculture production systems include;
i. Extensive fish farming systems
This is a production system that is mainly done in community dams and water reservoirs. The farmed fish depends solely on the natural production (algae) of the culture water and no artificial feeds are given. The commonly cultured species in this type of farming system are the Nile tilapia and African catfish which are stocked to prevent mosquito breeding in dams meant for watering livestock. The selection of the best breed is not much considered and in most cases, mixed sex tilapia are stocked. Production from these systems range between 500 and 1500kg/ha/year. This contributes up to 10% of farmed fish in Kenya (Ngugi et al., 2007).
ii. Semi-intensive fish farming Systems
This is the main aquaculture system practiced by most fish farmers in Kenya. The system is mainly used to produce both tilapia and catfish. The two species are reared either in a monoculture or polyculture of the two. They comprise of majorly earthen ponds, liner ponds and concrete ponds. The production ponds are fertilized using organic manure from livestock (chicken, goats, pigs, rabbit and cattle) (Munguti et al., 2014), supplementary feeds formulated at the farm or purchased from feed production industries are used. Cereal brans (maize, wheat, rice) may also be used to increase pond productivity. Production from these systems range between 1000 to 2500kg/ha/year (Ngugi et al., 2007). This system is highly preferred by most farmers due to its relatively cheap in terms of feed inputs which are affordable to many (Opiyo et al., 2018).
iii. Intensive aquaculture systems
This is the system that involve large investments in terms of feeds and electricity. This system is adopted by few commercial fish farmers. The system requires high quality feeds which are relatively expensive and only few farmers can afford (Opiyo et al., 2018). It involves other high technology systems such as; raceways, recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) and cages.
a) Raceways;
These are intensive systems used mainly for the production of Rainbow trout in the Mount Kenya regions. The system requires high quality feeds and other investments on electricity and labor. The production in these systems ranges between 10,000 and 80,000kg/ha/year (FAO, 2016). According to the State Department of Fisheries,2014, the production of rainbow trout in raceways in 2014 was 241MT valued at US$ 1,430,000. The contribution is higher in terms of monetary values than in weight because 1kg of trout is sold between US$ 3-12 (Mbugua, 2008).
b) Recirculating aquaculture system (RAS);
This is a system where fish are grown at high densities of 5 to 20 fish per cubic meter under controlled conditions. In Kenya, the system is mainly done in tanks either concrete or plastic. The system is used mainly in the production of catfish and tilapia reared in tanks indoors or under greenhouses (Opiyo et al., 2018). Production from RAS is estimated to be at 200MT/ha/year (State Department of Fisheries, 2016). The adoption rate of the system is low due to high costs in terms of electricity required to run the system. RAS investments for tilapia and catfish production is mainly done in per-urban areas near towns unlike in the rural areas (State Department of Fisheries,2016).
c) Cages;
This is the farming of fish in open waters mostly in enclosed meshes. The system embraces high stocking densities between 60 and 250 fish per cubic meter. The cage sizes range between 8-125M³. Nile tilapia is the only fish species cultured in cages producing up to 12,000,000Kg of fish in every production cycle in a year (Aura et al., 2018 and Njiru et al., 2018). Currently, there are over 4000 cages in the Lake Victoria stocked with over 3,000,000 tilapia fingerlings (Opiyo et al., 2018).
