Running a fish farm requires hard physical work and can be stressful at times as it calls for close management. This is the life of Katarina Senabu.
Growing up in a family with a aquaculture farming background, with eight sisters and four brothers, Ms Senabu was determined to one day have her own fish farm at a much larger scale than her parents.
Now at 48 years old, the mother of three is one of the few farmers in Suva with a hatchery and producing more than 22,000 Tilapia fry every month.
With a passion for farming that was developed at a young age, Ms Senabu is now supplying Tilapia not only in Viti Levu but also in the outer islands, selling her tilapia at $30 per kilogram.
“I always thank my parents for their upbringing, in teaching me all that I need to know and for making me who I am today. The height I have reached today I think has passed our family heights and I am thankful to the SPC (The Pacific Community) and the Ministry of Fisheries for making that happen,” she said.
Following her passion Ms Senabu studied agriculture in 1987 at the Koronivia Agriculture School.
In 2012, she was fortunate enough to be part of a program to learn about breeding Tilapia eggs on a hatchery, for which she was sent to Thailand in 2015 to enhance her knowledge on Tilapia farming and keeping a hatchery.
In each harvest, the Wailutu, Savusavu native collects 40,000 tilapia fries. The smaller ones are sold at 10 cents, while the slightly bigger ones are sold at 20 cents.
“While collecting the eggs, we need to collect them in stages, from stage one to stage five. From there we’ll store them in the hatchery system and leave it for seven days using the system, then from there, once hatched, it will be taken back to the pond. In the pond, we have to keep it fed for 21 days and in another two months it will be ready for the market,” Ms Senabu said.
The tilapia fish is sold particularly to other farmers and also at the local market around Viti Levu and the outer islands as well.
Ms Senabu’s only challenge is water but she manages this by using groundwater and the rain for her aquaculture.
“In here, I don’t have any water source, but I am planning to buy a borehole to help me with my aquaculture, other than that, I’ll just depend on these water sources that I have for now,” she said.
Apart from tilapia farming, Ms Senabu also integrates farming by planting fruits and vegetable alongside her fish ponds, including pineapples, vanilla and beekeeping.
She advises people to take up farming and make use of the land around us.
“There is money in the land. I would like to advise everyone who owns a land to make use of the resources they have and use the land to generate revenue. Let’s use our land, let’s use our time and give it our all.”