Plenty of fish in the tank: Pakistani farmer turns waste into feed, conserves water

KARACHI: Bubbles rise continuously from large, circular tanks full of fish in Karachi's northwestern Gadap Town. The bubbles mean that fish waste, for once, is actually not being wasted. Shaukat Hussain, the chief executive officer of Sammak Biofloc Fish Farms, operates nine biofloc tanks in a large area in Gadap. His company carries out biofloc fish farming and has 18 tanks in Gadap area of Pakistan's Karachi. Hussain's firm also provides training in biofloc fish farming to people in Pakistan and abroad, including Saudi Arabia. Simply put, bioflac technology involves farming fish and shrimp in a non-traditional way. Through this method, fish waste is converted into fish feed. Farmers produce fish in large, controlled tanks instead of ponds. Instead of flushing out dirty water, fish farmers grow a dense community of bacteria and microbes inside these large tanks. These microbes consume the ammonia from fish waste and uneaten feed, and clump together into small nutritious particles — the 'bioflocs' — that the fish then eat. 'We have made our own biofloc which has reduced our fish farming expenses instantly,' Hussain told Arab News on Saturday. Hussain's journey into non-traditional fish farming began in 2014, when he witnessed a strong demand for Pangasius fish largely imported from Vietnam at the time. He did some research and found that Pangasius was produced in Vietnam through the biofloc method. It wasn't until 2019 when rising feed costs made production increasingly expensive and pushed Hussain to abandon his conventional fish farming practice for biofloc. 'It increases their production three times,' Hussain said. 'We have made our own biofloc which has reduced our fish farming expenses instantly.' Each of the 18 fish tanks have a capacity of around 35,000 liters of water. Hussain says the 20-foot diameter tank each can produce 600 kilograms of fish during a nine-month production cycle. 'One tank producing 600 kg generates a revenue of Rs300,000 [$1,081],' Hussain said. 'After deducting our expenses, we make a clear profit of Rs200,000 [$721] per tank.' A business plan provided by As Sammak to Arab News puts the cost of one 35,000-liter tank at Rs285,000 ($1,016). A 12-tank setup would cost around Rs3.42 million ($12,190) for the tanks alone, while the company estimates another Rs1.2 million ($4,278) for a solar power system. Each tank requires around 100 watts of electricity for aeration, the company said, roughly equivalent to the power consumption of a ceiling fan. The solar system is used in the water's aeration, which is necessary to provide oxygen to the fish and for the biofloc bacteria to break down ammonia and other organic waste. The production, cost and profitability figures are estimates provided by Hussain and his company. They could not be independently verified by Arab News. Hussain said his company had also worked on projects in Saudi Arabia's Al Kharj and Dammam cities, and also in Africa. In Saudi Arabia, Hussain said his company uses biofloc systems to manage water quality without relying on large reverse-osmosis systems. Hussain said clients there had reduced production costs from around 13-14 Saudi riyals ($3.47-$3.73) per kilogram of fish to around 8-9 riyals ($2.13-$2.40) after adopting the system. Arab News could not independently verify the figures. His company plans to travel to Riyadh next month for another biofloc project, Hussain said. 'MONEY'S WORTH' Mohammad Amir buys fish from Hussain to sell it at the market. 'It is good fish which is liked by our customers,' Amir said. 'So we get them from here and sell it for a profit there.' For a biofloc system to work efficiently, Hussain says fish farmers must continuously manage oxygen levels, water quality and feeding. And that does not happen unless you're well-versed in the craft. Several people at the Gadap facility pay Hussain to learn about biofloc in hopes of mastering the method themselves one day. Arbab Rizwan, a 25-year-old farmer from Pakistan's southern Tharparkar district, said the main challenge in his home district was a shortage of water. The water that is available in Tharparkar, he said, had a lot of TDS [total dissolved salts] in it. 'To counter that, we were looking at biofloc,' Rizwan said. 'God willing, we would like to have a project there as well.' Muhammad Junaid Bajwa, 31, wants to learn the method to begin a small biofloc business on the rooftop of his home. 'The training they gave was a paid one,' Bajwa told Arab News. 'But after the paid training, I think I got my money's worth.' Bajwa says if his venture is successful, he will definitely expand the business. 'If I am successful in it, only then will I take the next big step,' he said.