Meet the farmer

Aarti Burman, founder of AB Fish Products, who hails from a remote village in West Bengal, is one of the most successful female fish farmers in the state.

Benjamin Orishaba, a 28-year-old Ugandan, is currently managing three tilapia hatcheries for a government fish farming project in Cote D’Ivoire and also runs his own aquaculture consultancy company.

Ananda Arrieta is helping to pioneer the use of bioremediation in Australia's aquaculture sector and sees her work as an essential part of the evolution of land-based aquaculture systems.

Northern India’s landlocked shrimp sector presents huge opportunities for entrepreneurs, according to Amanleen Singh, who moved to rural Punjab in 2017 to set up his own shrimp farm after a career that included working in travel, real estate and the stock mark…

Paulo Tahara, who farms tilapia at Estância Tahara, in São Paulo state, hopes that the practice and financial benefits brought about by improving the welfare of the fish on his farm will help persuade others to do the same, and perhaps even inspire local legis…

Forty-year-old Arturo Nieves works as production director of the shrimp farming company Aquacultores del Mar Azul, located in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico.

Ananda Malakar, from the Indian state of Odisha, was inspired to start farming Asian catfish after watching a video on a social media platform last June.

Batakrushna Sahoo, who hails from Odisha state in Eastern India, is one of the region’s most revered farmers, having played an instrumental role in fish production for over three decades.

Leakey Amolloh is a director of Kings Beta Fish Farm, which produces tilapia and catfish fingerlings and also grows out fish to table size for sale in Kenya. He has plans to expand the business substantially in the coming years.

32-year-old Kenechukwu Anthony Nwobodo set up and runs a catfish farming company, DieuMerci , in Lagos, Nigeria.

Yit Tung – who farms mud crabs, shrimp and tilapia in Malaysia – has no regrets about swapping a steady job as an engineer in the oil and gas sector for starting up his own aquaculture venture, RAS Aquaculture.

Stephen Woods, who has been with Scottish Sea Farms for 27 years, and farm manager of Charlotte’s Bay near Oban for the past 12 of those, was named Finfish Farmer of the Year at the recent Aquaculture Awards in Aviemore. Here he describes his career journey.

27-year-old Shady Hamdy owns and operates the Ibn Al-Nafis tilapia hatchery – alongside Dr Tamer Bastweesy – in Kafr El Sheikh, Egypt.

David Dupaul-Chicoine recently established an urban RAS business in Montreal with the capacity to produce up to 30 tonnes of Arctic char a year. Coupled with an innovative and ever-evolving business plan, Opercule is an intriguing addition to North American aq…

Sailesh Chudasama believes that biofloc production – of species including shrimp, tilapia and catfish – can create well-paid jobs and improve food security, both in Ghana and beyond.

Six years after taking up aquaculture Yatendra Kashyap is one of the leading fish farmers in Bihar, with an annual production of around 65 tonnes of carp, generating a turnover of around 9 million rupees (US $120,411).

Alaa and Medhat Elokda are producing tilapia and mullet in a high-density RAS facility which they have designed and built themselves.

Mikey Clarkson, who has a PhD from Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture and has recently completed his first year of managing Westmill Trout Farm, reflects on the differing options offered by the industry and academia.

Kane Mcguinn, founder and CEO of Atlas Aquaculture, has taken the experience he’s gained in the aquarium sector and applied it to the commercial production of species, including coral trout and giant groupers, in a unique RAS facility in Singapore.

Oladejo Olanrewaju Olumide is the chairman of Ikorodu Fish Farm Estate and second vice-president of the Lagos State Catfish and Allied Farmers Association (LASCAFAN) – the umbrella body of all catfish farmers in Lagos State.

26-year-old Wilfred Agbi runs Weija Farms, a catfish hatchery and an “aquaculture evangelism” agency in Ghana that aims to train up young people who are looking to establish their own fish farms.

Yarangjang Imchen claims to be the first ornamental fish and shellfish farmer in the landlocked state of Nagaland in northeast India, operating 40 tanks in his backyard.

Indonesian aquaculture veteran Hasanuddin Atjo has always been on the leading edge of aquaculture innovation. Now he is on a mission to design and build sustainable, industrial level shrimp farms in Indonesia.

27-year-old Nishanth Reddy Kavalreddy has been farming shrimp in India for six years and currently runs a farm divided between extensive and intensive production methods.

Israel Yusuf, who is also known as "Dr Fish", is a 41-year-old fish farmer, farm reform advocate, agribusiness development consultant and aquaculture service provider in Nigeria.

Wanyama Pascal is manager of Bayrise Fish Farm on Lake Victoria, Kenya – a tilapia farm with the capacity to produce nearly 400 tonnes a year.

With more than a decade of experience in shrimp aquaculture, Iwan Sumantri is spearheading the development of the Millennial Shrimp Farming project in Jepara, Indonesia while simultaneously training the next generation of Indonesian shrimp experts.

After graduating with a degree in natural resource management, Emmanuel Dery started the first fish farm in Ghana’s Northern and Upper Regions, with the support of the Canada International Development Agency (CIDA).

Ademola Adetola, a graduate of accounting from the University of Cape Coast, is the co-owner of AwoAde Farms, in Agoro Community, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Petros Thomas, who’s Greek and been in the marine aquaculture sector for 32 years, is currently working as assistant general manager and production operation manager for the Tabuk Fisheries Company in Saudi Arabia.

Twenty-seven-year-old Abdulmalik Oladipupo is the aquaculture senior supervisor at Patec Foods Limited, which produces catfish and pangasius in an RAS farm in Nigeria.

Subhajit Mondal is a young entrepreneur who started working with Pasupati Aquatics Private Limited in 2014. Since then, he has taken the company to dazzling heights and has become one of the largest exporters of shrimp in West Bengal, India.

After taking a job at Mowi because it was close to home, Fern quickly decided to make a career in aquaculture and hopes to take on a managerial role.

The 32-year-old is the head of Dunamis Golden Farms, located at the Akuse end of the Volta Lake, in eastern Ghana, as well as a distributor of fish feed, and a provider of technical services to young fish farms.

Aude Guo co-founded vertical farming startup InnovaFeed when she was 29 and now leads operations at the world's largest vertical insect farm.

Donnie Bunting started out in the dairy industry but decided to farm tilapia to stay ahead of the curve. Now, his family-owned business has expanded and produces tilapia, redclaw crayfish and Malayan prawns.

After less than five years in the shrimp farming business, Naeem Banglawala of MVJ Group has overcome disease outbreaks and equipment failures and can now produce two crops every year – without a loss.

Industry veteran Alex Harvey has been managing Mowi's Loch Hourn farm for 22 years and hopes that aquaculture will continue to make positive contributions to communities in the Scottish Highlands.

The Fish Site has been in touch with aquaculture operators from around the world, hoping to gain insights into their jobs, farms and the fish they produce for our new Meet the farmer series. Our first interview is with Royd Mukonda, the manag…