Fish feed management by farmers in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Fish feed is an important input in aquaculture and contributes 50–60 per cent to total production cost. Feed management is the profit determining factor in aquaculture. The present study was conducted to determine the feed managment and constraints in availability of feed, feeding methods and feed management in Thanjavur district in 50 farms with semi-structured questionnaire. The farms were selected based on the random sampling method. The study revealed that 50 per cent of fish farmers used farm made feed along with commercial manufactured feed and it was found that the use of commercial feed was gradually increasing. However the small farmers (40%) still used farm made feed due to high cost of the commercial feed. High price and low availability were found to be big constraints in use of commercial feed. The number of farmers using only commercial feed was very low (10%). It is recommended that farmer associations should establish and manage fish feed manufacturing units through public-private partnership mode with technical guidance from research institutions so as to get quality commercial feed at affordable price.