Farming Cycle

The farm had 11 fishponds altogether. Consider that there were 4 fishponds spared out of the following reckoning. They could be used as ‘stock’ ponds and for line fishing facility ponds. The number of ponds put out for this working calculation was 6 only. If pond No.1 was farmed in January, pond No.2 in February, Pond No.3 in March, pond No.4 in April, pond No.5 in May and pond No. 6 in June, then pond No. 1 would be harvested in July, pond No. 2 in August, pond No. 3 in September, pond No. 4 in October, pond No.5 in November and pond No.6 in December. As soon as a pond was harvested of its 6 months old fish then it was ready to be prepared again for the next cycle. In theory, there would then be ample supply of fish throughout the year. Each cycle lasted only 6 months as tilapia merah or hitam grew to popular saleable sizes in 6 months time. The popularly farmed fish at Daton Ngawi’ are the Tilapia Merah and the Tilapia Hitam, the merah more at demand than the hitam. Their growth fitted well with the above tried harvesting cycle pattern.

Some years back a few types of freshwater fish, the like of the common carp, lampan jawa, ekan keli, patin and big head were reared at the farm. They were all good for food fish and all were recommended by the fisheries officers of the relevant Government Department and agencies. But, having tried rearing them all it had been decided that Daton Ngawi’ kept to the two selected species only. The proprietor of Daton Ngawi’ had been approached by other farm fish breeders with a suggestion that a consortium of a few fishfarms linked and networked together to ensure steady supply of specified fish for bigtime consumers. The possible outlets would be the Lok Kawi Army Camp and the Sepanggar Submarine Base in Kota Kinabalu. “Although these ideas seemed typically fantasies as of now they might truly be realities in times to come,” Mat said. They had such discussions at a APB seminar conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture in which other related farming disciplines were also prominently featured, a few years ago.

Daton Ngawi’ bought its fishfeeds from the animal feeds agent at the popularly known Towering Centre shoplots. It obtained its stock for distributions from Peninsular Malaysia. The feeds were not Government controlled price items and in recent years the prices had shot up to RM50.50 per 20 kg bag for starter, RM48.00 per bag for grower and finisher was priced a bit lower. There were also a few proposals and suggestion among fish breeders as to what the Government could offer as aids to fish farmers. The Government had implemented the ‘pretrol subsidy’ for fishermen at sea. Could it not help the fish farmers on land? Did the floating sangkar fish farmers get any aid? It was visualised that if any of these requests were to be forwarded to Government for attention then it should well be done through an Association of some sort. Quick enough! An Association for fish breeders had been duly registered. Application Forms for membership were yet to be seen spread around and its anugural meeting awaited.

Purportedly due to the exorbitant price hikes of manufactured fishfeeds quite a number of long establised freshwater fish breeders had closed shop. Others did not close down but they could not improve as well. Others remained sorely neglected. Helphands, apart from the hardship of obtaining any, also augmented the monthly overhead expenses.

About Daton Ngawi'

The combination of the Kadazandusun of the Bunduliwan dialect words, Daton Ngawi’, literally means, ‘ours all’ or the norm version, ‘all ours’. The conceptual meaning of the whole name, therefore, is strangely, ‘Our Freshwater Fish Farm’. Once upon an early quite morning, a group of people, as once shared by Kondu Philip, were gathered at someone’s house observing a Kadazandusun Wake vigel. In the stillness of the morning, at about 4.00 o’clock, a not so distant rattle of a moving truck was heard. The rattle was so filling the peace of the Tambunan valley morning that it was clearly discerned that the exhaust pipe of that on-the-move truck was completely broken and totally disconnected more towards the perhaps 3000cc engine. One irritated members of that group of acquantances asked as to whose that should-be-off the road truck could be. The owner who was present among them, fully knowing that his son could very well be at the wheel, feeling a bit self conscious, owned up, saying, “Daton ngawi’ no ilo’”, meaning, “that’s actually ours”. Kondu Philip propergated the use of that catch phrase, “Daton Ngawi’ ”, entoned with a glotal stop (’ ) at the end. He was a senior English teacher at SMK Tambunan at that time. Kondu Philip owned a short-wheel base land rover as his transport facility to work. On the left hand side door of that land rover was written his catch phrase, Daton Ngawi’, signifying that he had registered a some sort of a business enterprise in Tambunan District and he named it, “Daton Ngawi’ ”. Quite far away from its original source, the Tambunan District, a Freshwater Fish Farm in Kampung Tintap in the Penampang District was duly registered as a business venture. Memories of friends and acquantances at work some over twenty five years ago still prevailed and as a way to prolong and cherish fast fading friends’ faces, “Daton Ngawi’ ” as a business venture name was used. The mere mention of “Daton Ngawi’”, Kondu Philip’s catch phrase, could trigger memories flooding back. “Daton Ngawi’ Freshwater Fish Farm”, as a name, could be translated as, “Our Freshwater Fish Farm”. The name was seen as customers friendly.