Nigeria, with a population of about 165,000,000 people is grossly underprovided with an essential food component, which is protein. For example, data from the FOS, CBN, and FAO indicate that from cattle, less than 2kg of beef is available to an average Nigerian per year, and just a mere 4kg of eggs per annum is available to each Nigerian.
In fact, milk production has been nose-diving or at best has remained constant since 1994. This scenario is compounded more so when the volume of egg supply is very low, being 10.56g per person per day as compared with the usual recommendation that an egg should be consumed by an adult per day. This recommendation would imply a crate of 30 eggs per month. This story also holds for other fish products.
To ameliorate this problem of low-level protein intake, there is the need for concerted effort, among the various stakeholders to bring about the massive production of protein-based food items at competitive costs so that they would be affordable to the general masses. Aside from the other necessary economic reforms, massive investment in fish farming is one way of resolving the problem and invariably in the importation and production of livestock feeds.
Image courtesy of alibaba.com
Fishes are aquatic creatures that live in water and there are over ten thousand {10,000} species of fishes in the waters. Only a few of the many kinds of fishes are being cultured in Nigeria. In Nigeria, there are two fish types that thrive. These are the tilapia and the Clarias, which is a class of the catfish family.
The aquaculture/fish industry is not new in Nigeria; the first documented fish farms date back fifty years. However, this was also the time when fishing activities among coastal communities also began to decrease due to oil-related activities.
Making locally-produced fish more readily available for Nigerian consumers will give them faster and fresher access to one of the healthiest sources of animal protein. In recent times there has been a growth in fish farming and this growth is creating a demand for fish feed. Apart from the presence of oxygen in the ponds, feed is next in importance for the successful production of fish.
Nutrient requirements and feeding characteristics of channel catfish have been extensively researched. This research has provided the basis for the formulation of efficient, economical diets and for the development of feeding strategies – both of which have been instrumental in the success of the catfish industry.
Fish Feed Image courtesy of indiamart.com
Feed for fish mostly consists of grain. Catfish feeds contain grain or grain by-products that are rich in starch. In addition to providing an inexpensive energy source, starch helps bind feed ingredients together and increases the expansion of extruded feeds so that the feed pellets are water stable and float in the water. A typical catfish feed contains 25 percent or more digestible carbohydrates.
Fish feed is processed by compression, pelleting, or extrusion. Existing pelletizers in Nigeria are grossly inadequate for the production of highly demanded fish feeds, especially the floating types that are produced through extrusion.
Food extrusion is a process in which food ingredients are forced to flow, under one or several conditions, through an opening in a perforated plate or die. Extruded floating feeds are preferred by many farmers because they allow for the observation of the feeding process thereby preventing wasteful feeding, facilitates the inactivation and destruction of anti-nutritional factors and other contaminants and are extremely stable in water.
The non-extruded feeds are unpopular because they sink rapidly when thrown in ponds, pollute the water and dissolve rapidly and as a result gets wasted due to the inability of the fish to detect them in the water.
An extruder can influence the texture of the pellets producing variations in hardness, brittleness, and cohesiveness. Density can also be influenced, resulting in the sinking and floating properties adjusted to the fish-eating behavior.
In Nigeria at the moment, the fish feed industry is dominated by few large commercial feed industries usually based in Europe, Asia, or America that run local franchised stores. Currently in Nigeria emphasis has been placed on encouraging indigenous feed enterprises that make use of the local ingredients in formulating feeds for the fish industry. The task of meeting the increasing demand for fish feed can best be realized through the increased availability of indigenous feed production.
Indigenous Feed Enterprises are seen as an honest approach to solving the fish feed challenge in Nigeria because of the ease of availability of raw materials and access by fish farmers. A number of strategies have been adopted such as price policies, input subsidies, production credit, and liberalization by governments and individuals to increase the output of these fish feed enterprises, yet their performance is low in terms of meeting the needs of the fish industry. Interestingly, the request for the products of the enterprises is daily on the increase.
In view of the above, fish feed production in Nigeria is a viable business.
References
www. fishfeedmachinery.com