Fish feed development

Fish feed technology is one of the least developed
sectors of aquaculture particularly in Africa and other
developing countries of the world (FAO, 2003). Feed is
one of the major inputs in aquaculture production. It is
one of the fundamental challenges facing the development
and growth of aquaculture in the African continent.
Fish feed development in Sub-Saharan Africa has not
made a significant progress in aquaculture as expected.
According to Hecht (2000), it is observed that the research
on inexpensive feed ingredients has not contributed
greatly to aquaculture development in Africa and suggested
that more research on how best plant protein can
be used as fish feed is required. Development and management
of fish feed, play very vital role in aquaculture
growth and expansion. Infact, it is a major factor that
determines the profitability of aquaculture venture. Jamu
and Ayinla (2003) reported that feed accounts for at least
60% of the total cost of fish production in Africa, which to
a large extent determines the viability and profitability of
fish farming enterprise. As aquaculture becomes intensive,
most farmers in Africa depend largely on importedB Madagascar, Ghana and Cote D’ivoire, where little
quantity of fish feeds are produced locally, the quality is
very poor and production rate inconsistent. This corroborated
the submission of Jamu and Ayinla (2003) that the
low quality of fish feed and its attendant high cost are the
major factor limiting the development of aquaculture in
Africa. Hence, research in fish nutrition that will utilize
locally available ingredients and fabricated equipment
without reducing the quality of the feed is urgent and
crucial to the overall success of aquaculture development,
growth and expansion in Africa.
Aquaculture production in Africa involves both the
intensive and semi-intensive system of production, which
is daily gaining ground in the continent. For any aquaculture
venture to be viable and profitable, it must have a
regular and adequate supply of balanced artificial diets
for the cultured fishes. This is so because the dissolved
nutrients that promote primary and secondary production
in the natural environment are seasonal and might be
insufficient or may not occur in required proportions to
meet the nutritional demand of cultured fishes (Ugwumba
and Ugwumba, 2003). There is therefore the need to
develop and encourage fish farmers to make use of ideal
pond fertilization programs, non-conventional feed resources,
feed stuff processing, refinement and formulations
that take cognizance of the requirements of the various
species and their stages (Ibiyo and Olowosegun, 2004).
In comparison to livestock feeds, fish feeds are unique in
that they are pelleted and the size of the pellet depends
to a large extent on size and age of the fish involved. Fish
feed is very important in the efficiency and overall performance
of fish in the pond and least cost feed production
which will reduce the cost of production of fish. This is
why any attention towards the production of effective and
cheap feed will benefit fish farmers in Africa, since the
feed ingredients are rich in desired nutrients (Tables 4
and 5).
The feed produced and used widely in Africa are categorized
into conventional and non conventional feed stuff;

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