HANDLING THE FEED CHALLENGES OF FISH FARMERS IN NIGERIAANYADIKE C. C.1, ONYIA, M.N.2 AND MBUNWE, M. J.3

INTRODUCTION Nigeria is among the largest fish consumers in the world with

over 1.5 million tons of fish consumed annually, yet its domestic fish catch is estimated at 450,000 metric tons per year (Ezenwa & Anyanwu, 2003; Jim, 2003).

The supply – demand gap N80 billion per annum is spent on fish importation (Odeh,

2013) despite our numerous water bodies, floodplains, reservoirs and river basins.

Aquaculture in NIGERIA

---great expansion are held back by persistent bottlenecks such as access to good-quality inputs (feeds and fingerling) due to its high cost, poor water quality management and low

technological input.

FISH FEED fish culture involve input of supplementary and complete feed,

which account for up to 40 % and 60 % of production costs respectively (NRC 1993; Fagbenro et al., 2003; Isyagi et al., (2009) and can sometimes negate the economic viability of a farm if suitable feed are not used.

This problem has become a major source of fear and phobia to many prospective fish farmers in Nigeria and urgent solution must be proffered if fish farming is to be attractive, lucrative and sustainable (Madu et al., 2003).

Quality fish feed can be formulated from our local raw materials (Eyo, 2001; Oresegun and Alegbeleye 2001, Okoye and Sule 2001, Balogun et al., 2004) but the problem of instability or non-floatability of these locally produced feed caused farmers to depend on foreign pelleted feed.

Local versus foreign fish feed

Local fish feed: Disintegrate in water easilyNot well assimilated by fishHigh waste accumulation

Foreign fish feed: its nutritional value and its floating nature stands it out from the locally produced feeds

the continuous increase in the cost of these fish feed have led to exits of many fish farms in Nigeria

FISH FEEDFeed type Farm made Commercia

lTotal

Tilapia 14,258 6,554 20,812

Catfish 10,552 4,206 14,728

Total 24,810 10,760 35,570

There are few commercial sources of fish feed as only specialized animal millers engage in fish feed production on demand; as such majority of fish feed produced (69.75 %) (Table 1) are farm made. (Fagbenro et al., 2003)

Table 1. Fish feeds production (Tonnes) in Nigeria

Table 2: Summary of Inventories on Aquatic Resources, Fish Farms and Feed Producers in Nigeria (AIEP Project). July 2004

No Geo political Zones (States)

No. of Dams and Reservoirs

No. of Fish Farms

No. of Feed Producers

South East Zone 1 Abia 4 40 2 2 Anambra 5 18 3 3 Ebony 17 12 7 4 Enugu 22 4 4 5 Imo 9 40 16 Sub Total 57 114 32 South South Zone 1 Akwa Ibom 16 98 4 2 Bayelsa 52 86 - 3 Cross River 17 199 - 4 Delta 30 420 6 5 Edo 6 136 - 6 Rivers 22 89 8 Sub Total 147 1,028 18 South West Zone 1 Ogun 24 173 35 2 Ekiti 6 31 2 3 Lagos - 153 16 4 Ondo 8 15 3 5 Osun 7 300 26 6 Oyo 29 234 9 Sub Total 74 906 91

No Geo political Zones (States)

No. of Dams and Reservoirs

No. of Fish Farms

No. of Feed Producers

North Central Zone 1 Abuja 15 29 1 2 Benue 45 198 5 3 Kogi 35 32 - 4 Kwara 21 121 18 5 Plateau 85 18 9 6 Nassarawa 16 16 2 7 Niger 35 29 1 Sub Total 252 443 36 North East Zone 1 Adamawa 16 4 - 2 Bauchi 49 - - 3 Borno 18 12 - 4 Gombe 44 9 1 5 Taraba 83 8 1 6 Yobe 20 13 1 Sub Total 230 46 3 North West Zone 1 Jigawa 15 4 1 2 Kaduna 20 10 9 3 Kano 17 10 1 4 Katsina 40 7 16 5 Kebbi 30 56 - 6 Sokoto 15 9 1 7 Zamfara 40 9 7 Sub Total 177 105 35 Grand Total 937 2,642 215

Other Commercial Feed Manufacturers:

Insta Pro 600 Pro pelletizer machine which is one of the few extruded pelletizers in the country.

Feed Masters has an aquaculture feed production in Ilorin with a capacity of 10 tons per hour of pelleted feed giving an annual capacity of some 13,000 tons of fish feeds.

Chi Feed in Ibadan produce floating feeds. Guinea Feeds in Edo State produced pelleted fish feeds.

Poor participation of women in aquaculture in Nigeria

This has led to:

Reduced availability of fish market

Increased cost of fish

Increased unemployment rate

Lack of high nutritional value, especially for vulnerable groups such as pregnant and lactating women, infants and pre-school children

Lack of highly digestible protein that are rich in sources of fat and water-soluble vitamins, minerals and fatty acids.

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Challenges and the way forward

Studies has shown that the challenges in making feeds in Nigeria are not in sourcing the ingredient but on the techniques involved in formulation and processing (Ogugua & Eyo 2007; Anyadike et al., 2014).

Fish feeds processed by extrusion were found to exhibit floating characteristics typical of imported floating fish feed in Nigeria.

Feed process line

Local feed process

Way forward Successful aquaculture ventures hinge on expertise of

professionals from various disciplines (SEAFDEC, 1995). It is known that aquaculture technology for large-scale, low-cost

production of premium quality fresh fish needs a total project approach for the design, construction and operation of advanced fish farming inputs and systems.

Engineering is the least developed in Nigeria (Uzukwu et al., 2010), hence the challenge in the processing techniques and production line which lead to unavailability of quality feed to maximize production.

Poor research facilities, development and adequate training of expertise and poor government policies have contributed to the low ebb of aquacultural development in Nigeria.

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