Description

The aquaculture industry is not new to 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.

Fishes are aquatic creatures that lives in water and there are over ten thousand {10,000} species of fishes in the waters. Only a few of the many kind 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 industry in Nigeria has reported production of farmed catfish of 143,207 MT (Federal Dept. of Fisheries, 2008) and some 20% growth per year.

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.

The fish industry in Nigeria can be categorized into two namely; those who fish on the high sea and those who grow fish inland. There is high demand for fish in Nigeria. The estimated annual national demand for fish in Nigeria is 2.3 million tones out of which market research evidence shows that one in every 500 of this total demand represents the demand estimate.

The rising demand for fish products has led to a tremendous increase in the number of fish farms all over the country.

However, the advancement in the fish sector in Nigeria is currently being undermined by the escalating cost of feeds.

In Nigeria, the fish feed industry is dominated by few large commercial feed industries usually based in Europe, Asia or America who run local franchised industries.

Currently in Nigeria emphasis has been placed on encouraging indigenous feed enterprises that make use of local ingredient in formulating feeds for the fish industry.

The task of meeting the increasing demand for fish feed can best be realized through increased availability of indigenous feed production.

Indigenous Feed Enterprises are seen as an honest approach because of 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.

Fish feeds available in Nigeria fall into three categories:

1. Locally Manufactured High Quality Fish Feeds
2. Local Artisanal Fish Feeds made by small – scale feed millers or made “on – farm” by fish farmers.
3. Imported Fish Feeds

The key index for managing feeding regimes is the Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR). The FCR is defined as the number of kilograms of feed required to produce one kilogram of fish. Thus, the more efficient the feeding regime, the lower the FCR.

A good FCR could range from 1.0:1 to 1.5: 1; i.e from 1.0 to 1.5 kg of feed is needed to produce 1 kg of fish gain.

Nigeria’s feed production is expanding rapidly in step with growth in the fish industry. Fish feed accounts for approximately 75 percent of the total feed produced in Nigeria and about 70 percent of the cost of producing proteins of animal sources can be attributed to animal feeds.

Nigeria imports approximately 40,000 tons of fish feed (significantly for catfish and tilapia production) valued at $60 million per year. The imports are mostly from Israel (60%) and the EU (40%). All imported feeds are floating and come in 15 kg and 20 kg bags and in the following [(2, 3, 4 5 6.5, 8, and 9) millimeters (mm)]. Average market price is $1,300 per ton.