IBB University to boost fish production through improved feed


Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU), Lapal, Niger, has affirmed its readiness to boost fish production through an improved feed.
Dr Naomi Dadi-Mamud, Senior Lecturer, Department of Biology in IBBU made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.

She said such effort would reduce the cost of fish in the market and create more jobs in the country.
She said feed ingredients for fish meal was presently expensive, adding that most feeds used in fish farming industry in the country were imported resulting in drain foreign exchange.
“ Thus, there is need for sourcing of local alternatives to reduce dependence on imported materials.
“It is important to search for alternative feed stuffs from unconventional sources to reduce cost,“ she said.
Dadi-Mamud said the feeding trial of the IBBU project was conducted for twelve weeks to study the growth performance of Hybrid Hetero clarias fingerlings fed with Bambara nut as alternative meal.
According to her, five experimental diets were formulated as four contained Bambara nut (Vigma subterrannean) at varying levels of (0, 15, 40, 65, 80) per cent.
“The diet with 0 per cent Bambara nut served as control, “ she said.
She further said that the effects of the inclusion of different portion of Bambara nut replacement was evaluated on the growth performance of the experimental fish species.
She added that the highest percentage weight gain was recorded in the fish fed with 65 percent Bambara nut replacement.
According to her, the least growth performance was recorded in 80 per cent replacement meal.
The result she said indicated that growth performance and feed utilisation was better with 65 per cent Bambara nut replacement meal than in 100 per cent fish meal.
“The findings of the study revealed that Bambara nut meal was accepted and digested by the experimental fish as in the commercial set up of the study,’’ she said.
This, she said, gave an indication that the fingerling did well with 65 per cent replacement meal of Bambara nut.
According to her, fish farmers will have a more economical fish feed from locally available plant stuff like Bambara nut as well as reduce the cost of feed from industrial or conventional feeds.

She said fish farming known as aquaculture played a major role in agriculture in Africa especially in Nigeria.  

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