Site Selection

Pond Construction
Importance
 The layout and the management of your farm will largely be influenced by
the kind of site you select.

 The site therefore will strongly affect the:

 cost of construction,
 the ease with which the ponds can be managed,
 the amount of fish produced and,
 the economics of your enterprise.

The whole future success of your enterprise depends on the selection of a good
site for your fish farm.
Preliminary Decisions
Before starting to look for a site, you should have a clear idea
of the type of fish farm you wish to build:

 Whichlevel of production do I plan to reach, subsistence or

commercial? Which scale, if commercial? 
 Which culture system shall I adopt?
 Shall I use fertilizers or fish feeds or both? 
 Which species of fish shall I produce and at which size shall I
sell them? 
Preliminary Decisions
Before starting to look for a site, you should have a clear idea
of the type of fish farm you wish to build:

 Shall I have to buy juveniles or produce them all myself? 

 Shall I try to integrate my fish farming activities with other
agricultural productions I already have? Shall I also start
raising animals on my farm? 
 Which area of the farm do I wish to develop immediately? Will
I develop other areas later, as a second phase?
Major Considerations

 water supply,
 soil quality
 local topography
Other Important Considerations

 Vegetation cover
 Accessibility
 Proximity to your home
 Multiple uses of the ponds
 Proximity and size of market
 Availability of inputs

Note: remember to ensure that there are no legal restrictions on

the utilization of the site and the usage of water.
Each potential site should be evaluated in the field through
a series of quick reconnaissance surveys:

 For a small fish farm with an area less than 3 000

m2 , a small series of rough measurements will be
sufficient.

 For a larger fish farm where layout and gradients

are critical, you will need more accurate
measurements.
The purpose of the reconnaissance topographical survey 
is to check if ponds can be built both from the technical and
economic points of view. 
A longitudinal profile of the stream will give you the difference
in elevation between various points.
 It will tell you if ponds can be built.
 confirm whether the site is also suitable (i.e. generally
sloping) and would match well with the stream elevations.
Cross-section profiles of the site, perpendicular to the longitudinal profile,
at 20- to 50-m intervals or less for small ponds and in irregular terrain,
will give you the shape and size of the site.
For barrage ponds

 If the volume of the pond is greater than ten to 15 times the volume of the dam, and if
the longitudinal slope of the farm site is less than 2 to 3 percent, the topography of the
site can be considered acceptable.
However, when selecting a site for a barrage pond,
remember that you should try to:

 build the shortest dam possible;

 make sure there is good material
around the place where you want to
build the dam;
 carefully check for possible floods;
the smaller the drainage area, the
smaller the floods;