Robin Ndung’u is the founder of Kisumeo Organics, an intergrated organic farm specialized in among others, crayfish farming.
Kisumeo Organics is the only crayfish farming franchise in Kenya.
Robin ventured into crayfish farming because they are hardy and one of the easiest to produce.
Here is his story as told by WoK.
Background
Robin studied computer science and mathematics in campus, and he initially engaged in farming as a hobby.
In an interview with The Fish Site, he noted that he had an integrated farm where he kept rabbits, chicken, tilapia and catfish.
“After completing my studies, I was organising events, but when business slowed down, I turned my farming hobby into a business to sustain myself
“However, farming tilapia and catfish was expensive due to feed prices, which lowers the profit margins,” he said.
Robin stopped keeping tilapia and catfish, and went into crawfish farming after coming across it while fishing with a friend.
“Luckily, I came across crayfish by chance while fishing with a friend in the Kiboko River. Having eaten crawfish in different countries, we brought them to a pond and started learning online how to profitably farm them,” he said.
He embraced crayfish farming because they are hardy and easy to produce, and they have a high hatching capability and low fry mortality.
“They are prolific breeders and one female can lay between 600 and 700 eggs… Additionally, crayfish fetch better returns because they are considered a premium seafood product,” Robin noted.
Integrated farming
Robin practices integrated farming in a five acre farm, two quarter-acre hold ponds with a capacity of 1 tonne each, and a hatchery.
“We could produce up to 50 tonnes at our current capacity, but we currently only produce 15 tonnes per 8-month production cycle
“The hatchery is an aquaponics system where we also have lettuce, cabbage and kale,” the farmer explained.
He also does value addition by making crawfish powder which he sells to Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana.
“We harvest the smallest 30 percent of our crayfish at four months old to make crawfish powder. They are big on soups in their food culture and use crawfish powder as a seasoning for their soups,” Robin added.
They also supply crayfish to Chinese and Nigerian restaurants in Nairobi with 50 kilograms of crawfish every day or two.
“We are awaiting certification that will enable us to mass export our products to Nigeria and Cameroon where we have already sent samples and received good feedback,” Robin said.
Fresh crawfish sell at Ksh 1,500 per kg and Ksh 1,800.
Challenges
Robin cited feeds as one of their major challenges in crayfish farming.
The biggest contributing factor to the challenge is especially because they are tapping into something new.
“We knew that crawfish eat decomposed material, but did not know exactly what organic waste they feed on
“We currently supplement the minerals and vitamins lacking in our formulated feeds using catfish pellets,” he explained.
