Unlocking the Promise of Africa’s Blue Economy With Digital Aquaculture Solutions for Fish Farmers
Photo courtesy of Aquarech.
Africa’s fish stocks have been vastly depleted by European and Asian industrial ships combined with the growing demographic pressure around the lakes and coastal regions.
While the continent is the fastest-growing fish farming region in the world (expected to increase by 50% in the coming 10 years), the sector remains inefficient, relying on broken and unscalable foundations. While small and medium-sized fish farmers in Africa hold the key to the region’s food and nutrition security, the majority operate in subsistence or low productivity: “guesswork production”, low quality feed at the last mile, limited financial services, lack of traceability, harmful environmental practices and more.
THE AQUARECH SOLUTION
Aquarech is the first ‘digital aquaculture’ platform aggregating all key players in the value chain: small independent fish farmers, feed manufacturers, and fish buyers. Operating in Kenya, their platform tracks the journey from fish feeding to sales, including feed loans and logistics to service even the most remote farms.
In an industry rife with poor-quality products, Aquarech aims to consistently provide small and medium-sized fish farmers with access to high-quality feeds, a flexible payment plan and a ready market at harvest. Aquarech takes a climate smart approach, educating small holder farmers on the importance of feed quality, providing data driven recommendations on feeding to limit waste and keep the production cycle precise and short. The ultimate value to customers is to transform fish farming from subsistence production into a data-driven, attractive livelihood opportunity.
Their digital platform includes:
A Feed Marketplace which connects farmers to the top quality feed providers and importers. Aquarech is able to provide top feed to the smallest, most remote farmers at the last mile. Farmers can then skip the “mash sinking” (low quality) feed to have consistent, fast fish growth.
Farm Management Tools to train, supervise and advise the farmer at every step. Aquarech uses sensors to provide customized recommendations (type of feeds based on fish growth, times to feed/stop, harvesting guidance…).
A Fish Stock Marketplace where traders can order the needed fish offering a guaranteed market to farmers.
The impact on farmer income is immediate: less feed waste, reducing the amount of feed by 40% and faster fish growth which reduces the production cycles down to 10 months (from 16 months) making Aquarech the platform of choice for independent farmers and fish traders in Kenya.
“With so many geo-political crises around it, Africa is today forced to invent and modernize the key pillars of its economies. Aquaculture is one of those critical and fast growing industries (over 400 000 small fish farmers already) providing fish on table for millions while offering a desperately needed “window” for the wild fish to regrow. Aquarech is a pioneer, building digital technologies to provide independent fish farmers with precision production and climate smart practices, even better than integrated industrial farms,,” says Toffene Kama, Investment Principal, Mercy Corps Ventures.
“Listening to your customers is key to building a product and or a service. Most of our farmers are considered “unbankable”, when I listen to them speak, it becomes clear to me that developing an inclusive aquaculture sector is non-negotiable,” says Dave Okech, Founder & CEO at Aquarech.
THESIS AREA — ADAPTIVE AGRICULTURE & FOOD SYSTEMS
Aquarech buys and resells quality fish feeds (at the start of the chain) and actually purchases the produced fish from farmers to resell in food-business. Aquarech improves farmer incomes by providing:
top quality feed at 90-day credit which reduces the production time from 16 months to 10 months (more cycles)
technical training for precision fish feeding techniques and aquaculture best practices to realize more output
market ready production by buying 100% of production before traders (no sales risks)
The end goal is to transform fish farming from a subsistence or low-value prospect into an attractive, viable livelihood.
Aquarech aims to become Africa’s premier fish farming platform for small and medium-sized fish farmers, feed manufacturers, and fish buyers. It is taking a page from eFishery in Indonesia which initiated the digital transformation of the fish farming industry with sensors and data driven approach from production to sale.
Stay tuned for more updates on our portfolio here.
