Chicken Dung/manure and Fish Farming Author: Ivo Arrey Mbongaya Founder/Director African Centre for Community and Development. https://www.youtube.com/user/AfricanCentreforCom https://www.facebook.com/pages/African-Centre-for-Community-and-Development/103686769685856 This article explores the advantages of integrating fish farming with poultry in order to reap benefits from chicken dung/manure. In this article wastes or chicken feces/poop has been used loosely to include manure made out of chicken poop as well as chicken poop itself. It is based on academic literature and research conducted by African Centre for Community and Development.

1. Chicken Dung/manure and Fish Farming
Author: Ivo Arrey Mbongaya
Founder/Director
African Centre for Community and Development.
https://www.youtube.com/user/AfricanCentreforCom
https://www.facebook.com/pages/African-Centre-for-Community-and-Development/103686769685856
P. O. Box 181 Limbe
Emails: arreymbongayaivo@gmail.com or oldboyarret@yahoo.com
c/o Earth Complex Guesthouse Limbe, Cameroon
Date: 05/04/2019
©2019 African Centre for Community and Development. All Rights Reserved.

2. Abstract
This article explores the advantages of integrating fish farming with poultry in order to reap benefits from
chicken dung/manure. In this article wastes or chicken feces/poop has been used loosely to include manure
made out of chicken poop as well as chicken poop itself. It is based on academic literature and research
conducted by African Centre for Community and Development.
To an untrained eye, chicken dung and fish farming have no relation. But to a trained eye
there are cost saving (see http://wire.farmradio.fm/en/farmer-stories/2015/01/kenya-
farmers-use-chicken-droppings-to-feed-farmed-fish-11214) and other advantages that can
accrue from linking chicken dung to fish farming or aquaculture. These advantages and uses
include the following:
 Firstly fish feed on chicken dung/manure*poop hence the latter is and can be an
intrinsic tool in the sustainable farming of fish. Designs tested in Thailand, Kenya,
China and across Asia have placed chicken scoops on top of fish ponds to ensure
chicken droppings can be accessed by fish while others have simply collected and
introduced chicken dung with fish feed from nearby poultry farms (Muinde, 2014).
 More so, chicken raised alongside a fish project do not only provide alternative feed
for fish but help in reducing cost of farmers. Some fish feed can reach up to 20,000 fcfa
or 34.52 US dollars per 50 kilogram bag in Africa. This is a deterrent to fish farming in
many parts of Africa where a major chunk of the population and potential fish farmers
are living below 2.5 US dollars per day. Alternatives are thus invaluable to sustaining
the industry and are arguably entry points for impact investing in the continent.
 Chicken dung contains important nutrients vital for fish growth and health. “Poultry
manures are nutrient-rich, but there is great variability in their quality at the time of
use as fish production inputs. Although between 72-79% of the dietary nitrogen, 61-
87% phosphorus and 82-92% of the potassium was present in feedlot egg-laying hens
(Taiganides, 1978), the variability in terms of nutrients available (g nutrient/bird/ day)
can be much greater. The impacts of the gradual improvements in food conversion
efficiencies attained by modern breeds and feeds are probably overridden by other
factors, especially diet. Poultry raised on a balanced ration produce a higher quality,
more nutrient dense waste than those fed a supplementary feed” (See
http://www.fao.org/ag/aga/agap/frg/conf96.htm/little2.htm ).
 Also chicken dung/manure can also be used to fertilize maize farms used in making
local fish feed in situations where fish farmers are producing their own feed. This
approach is eco-friendlier to the use of chemical fertilizers that eventually reach and
pollute ground water or intoxicate farmers from poor management or use.
 Also small scale chicken production for dung, meat and eggs is invaluable to fish
farmers as it helps in the diversification of incomes and the spreading of risks.

3. Farmers and their families can eat and sell chicken meat and eggs as they can support
the fish project from their poultry farms in such periods where the price of fish feed is
affected by speculation on maize which is one of the key components in fish feed
production.
 Also fish like tilapia are fast breeders and can produce in such quantities that farmers
need to depopulate fish ponds in order to have more healthy and weighty fish. The
fish taken out of the ponds can also be recycled or dried for the making of chicken
feed in an ecosystem where both fish and poultry are farmed for strategic business
reasons.
Despite the stated advantages of chicken dung production to fish farming, this method is not
widely used. The following reasons account for these gaps:
 Poor financing of the agricultural and livestock sector in Africa and the developing
world is preventing farmers from spreading risks or multitasking between
poultry/poultry dung production and fish farming. Little access to loans means
farmers stay with what they have. High interest rates mean only farmers with
collateral security can access loans. Inflexibility in analyzing local assets means even
potential borrowers may be denied access to financing for not having particular
documentations despite being credible business stakeholders or owners of assets
locally. For instance some banks insist on title deeds but most land in Africa is
structured by deeds of conveyance, conveyances from traditional authorities or
family. Not having situational intelligence in understanding these instruments affects
access to finance for many.
 Poor knowledge of construction techniques or layout design which can affordably
allow fish farmers to have an integrated system where they harvest dung from
poultry.
 More so, poor access to training on either systems or a system that links poultry and
fish farming. This is compounded by poor investments in vocational
education/training and poor government extension services. In this light many women
and youths or small enterprises are left out of knowledge banks that can help them
adopt fish and poultry farming as a livelihoods option.
 Besides high price of fish and poultry feed is also affecting adoption of this model as a
livelihoods option. Increasingly many are attracted to free range options while
advocates for the adoption of bamboo farming and transformation support poultry
systems that depend on bamboo leaves as fodder or rotten bamboo leaves as
breeding grounds for worms/insects eaten by chicken.
 Also the model has arguably been linked to the spread of bird flu. This affects
adoption globally.

4. Despite these roadblocks, all is not lost. Chicken dung/manure can be made more available to
fish farmers if the following instruments are put in place:
 Collection centres for poultry dung from industrial scale poultry farmers can help
supply small scale fish farmers who want to strategize by farming fish with feed and
poultry dung.
 More so, education and training of this model of fish farming must be stepped up by
relevant public and private institutions. This will allow farmers develop the necessary
skill sets invaluable to their profession and spur youth movements into the sector
especially in developing regions of the world where there are very high levels of youth
and women unemployment. This will also help pond and disease management across
the industry.
 Impact investors, venture capitalists and other financial institutions must step up
capital flows into the fisheries and livestock sectors or to agriculture in general. This is
vital for Africa where population is presently at 1.2 billion and is likely to double by
2040.
 Besides government extension services must ensure rural and peri-urban/urban
adoption of this model. This well help to increase employment and to fight hunger,
malnutrition and food insecurity which is now at critical levels in Africa where there is
also low levels of technological use as well as high levels of extreme poverty. Indeed
“Global estimates of undernourishment rose from 777 million in 2015 to 821 million in
2017. Africa has the highest prevalence of undernourishment, estimated in 2016 to be
20% of the population. This is especially alarming in Eastern Africa, where it is
suspected that one-third of the population is undernourished. Due primarily to its
larger population size, Asia has the highest total number of undernourished
individuals—520 million, versus Africa’s 243 million (FAO, 2017)”. Also see
https://www.worldhunger.org/africa-hunger-poverty-facts-2018/ for global figures on
hunger.
 More so, civil society organizations should be financed under the Sustainable
Development Goals and Agenda 2063 of the African Union to develop training and
other facilities that ensure the valorization and adoption of fish and poultry farming
for advantages intimated above. This will compliment the efforts of government
policies and streamline the gaps in these policies.
Therefore poultry dung can be very important to fish farming. It needs more inclusive devices
that ensure access to financing, education and training, understanding of markets etcetera as
well as making necessary links in order to create trajectories for adoption regionally and
globally. It needs more convincing and dynamic policies on the need to spread risks or to

5. diversify incomes as a way of fighting poverty and improving wellbeing in Africa, developing
parts of the globe and even in some parts of the developed world.
Bibliography/References
Muinde, A. 2014. Rearing Fish under Chicken shed increases yields 4 times. Published online in
http://www.nafis.go.ke/2014/08/rearing-fish-under-chicken-shed-increases-yields-4-times/
Poultry and Fish Production - A Framework for Their Integration in Asia. Published online in
http://www.fao.org/ag/aga/agap/frg/conf96.htm/little2.htm
Kenya: Farmers use chicken droppings to feed farmed fish. Published online in
http://wire.farmradio.fm/en/farmer-stories/2015/01/kenya-farmers-use-chicken-droppings-to-feed-
farmed-fish-11214
AFE, Agricultural and Food Engineering, 1992. Final Report-Muscovy Duck Project : The development
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Coleman, J.A., and P. Edwards. 1987. Feeding pathways and environmental constraints in waste-fed
aquaculture: balance and optimization. Pages 240-281 in P.J.W. Moriarity and R.S.V. Pullin, editors.
Detritus and microbial ecology in aquaculture. International Center for Living Aquatic Resources
Management, Manila, Philippines.
Diana, J.S., C.K. Lin, T. Bhukaswan, V. Sirsuwanatach, and B.J. Buurma. 1990. Thailand: Cycle II of the
Global Experiment. Pond Dynamics/Aquaculture Collaborative Research Data Reports 2(2). Oregon
State University, Corvallis, Oregon.
Engle, C.R., Skladany, M., 1992. The Economic Benefit of chicken Manure Utilization in Fish Production
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FAO,1990. FAO yearbook: Production Vol.43:1989. FAO Statistics Series No.94. Food and Agriculture
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6. Little, D.C., K. Kaewpaitoon and T. Haitook. 1994. The commerical use of chicken processing wastes to
raise hybrid catfish (Clarias gariepinus x Clarias macrocephalus) in Thailand. Naga, The ICLARM
Quarterly. 25-27
©2019 African Centre for Community and Development. All Rights Reserved.