Catfish culture does not require a pond with flowing water, so catfish culture can be done by utilizing a soil pond, tarpaulin, or concrete pond. Because the culture method is quite easy, many people try their luck with it.
Some are unsuccessful, but some are successful with catfish farming. One of them is Suganda. A catfish farmer from Cirebon-West Java (Jabar) is able to produce up to 3 tons of catfish per day. The catfish are distributed to meet market demand to several cities in Central Java, Jakarta, Bandung-Jabar, and Lampung.
Suganda, who is also the Head of the Kersa Mulia Bakti Pokdakan, Kertasura Village, Kapetakan District, Cirebon Regency, admitted that he started farming catfish since 1998. Since Indonesia was affected by the monetary crisis, he has been farming catfish with 1-2 ponds.
At a time when the economy was in turmoil, Suganda stumbled and fell and got up again to start culturing catfish. Armed with a strong spirit and will to try, finally the catfish farming business that was dreamed of yielded brilliant results. In fact, currently Suganda and 12 of his friends are able to develop catfish farming on 30 hectares (ha) of land with 350 catfish ponds. Suganda’s business continues to grow. Of the land, there are around 5 ha used for catfish farming which are his own, while the rest are rain-fed rice fields that are rented for Rp15 million per year. The catfish ponds built on the land are on average 500 meters (m2).
