Most farmers think that every site where there is water, is suitable for pond construction, but this is wrong. Suitable the water should be enough and able to flow by gravity. It should have conditions like permanent source of water. The type of the soils should have some form of clay because clay holds water more than any other form of soil. The topography should offer the gravitation flow of water into and outside the pond because fish uses a lot of water and if the water is stagnant the production system will be affected. The pond should have a depth of 1metre towards the inlet and 1.2metres towards the outlet
How to set up the pond
After ascertaining that the site has got all the requirements of a good fish pond, then the excavation starts. There are two ways of digging a pond. Farmers with the means hire tractors to excavate the ponds. The average cost of using a tractor to construct a 20x40metre ponds sh10m. But this is a bigger pond. A farmer can construct smaller ponds of say 10x20metres depending on their desires. Note that a tractor takes a shorter time to accomplish the job, compared to manual labor, however manual labour is cheaper and affordable for small holder farmers.
