On-farm feed: the potential for improving profitability in aquaculture

The urge to develop a standard practical diet for farmed fish in Nigeria has been on the increase since the last decade. Since ages diets has ever represent the largest single cost item of most fish farm operations. This is the reason why careful selection of feed ingredients for use in aqafeed plays a vital role in the resultant nutritional and economic success of farmed fish. In an attempt to meet the objectives of culturing fish two main sources of fish feed have been identified for meeting the nutritional requirements of fish. These include 'on-farm feeds' and 'commercial feeds'. However, 'on-farm feed' takes the lion share out of the total annual national aquafeed product which amounts to about 70% of the estimated total of 3,570 tones of fish feed produced in year 2000. This paper takes a look at the important of non-conventional feed resource in 'on-farm feed', the place of vitamins in 'on-farm feed', the need to develop and encourage on-farm feed production and feeding strategies if aquaculture will grow further to meet the projected million metric tones production within this decade