Performance Evaluation of Integrated Aquaculture of Catfish, Pig and Rice

Augustine Omoike ,Augustine Eyiwunmi Falaye ,Emmanuel O Ajani ,Olubukunmi Samuel Akande

doi:10.7176/alst/71-04

Abstract

Study was carried out on the performance of fish, pig and rice integration to assess the productivity of integrated fish farming system against conventional fish, pig and rice farming, carried out in 84 days, T-test was used to compare means of the growth performance of fish and pig and water use efficiency (WUE) of rice culture under conventional and integrated farming systems. The average weight gain (167g), specific growth rate (1.2) and the feed conversion ratio (1:1) in the integrated system were better and significantly different (p< 0.05) from those got from conventional systems. Water use efficiency of the integrated system in terms of rice production (3.566) was 16.99 times better than that conventional system that relied on irrigation. Physico-chemical parameters of the two system studied were within tolerable range and showed no significant difference. According to the results got, integration of fish, pig and rice reduces waste and input and thus increased productivity which in turn brings about wider profit margin and contributes to food security. In the face of the greatly dwindling freshwater reserve, integrated aquaculture holds the key to sustainable food security. This study has shown that integration of catfish, pig, and rice gave more yield and profits. Keywords: Integrated aquaculture, fish - pig –rice, performance, water use efficiency DOI : 10.7176/ALST/71-04

Highlights

Nigeria offers the largest market for fisheries products in Africa, Fish production from capture fisheries in spite of its being expensive has been erratic and on the decline in recent years, resulting in increase in poverty and nutritional deficiency
This shows that the total weight gained by conventional was 133.342kg with FCR 1.3 against integrated with 150.995kg with FCR of 1.1
The results in this research has shown that the combination of Catfish, Pig and Rice, yielded more compare to the conventional production of these livestock, there was a great improvement in the FCR, which was lower as an indication of good performance indices

Summary

Introduction

Nigeria offers the largest market for fisheries products in Africa, Fish production from capture fisheries in spite of its being expensive has been erratic and on the decline in recent years, resulting in increase in poverty and nutritional deficiency. One of the main challenges facing aquaculture today is sustaining a continued increase in fish production while minimizing the impact on the environment (Sugiura et al, 2006). This requires an intervention to maintain a surplus that is sustainable. Given this situation, it is pertinent to provide the poor and hungry with a low cost and readily available strategy to increase food production using less land area and less water without further damage to the environment (Ayinla, 2003). This study is conducted to assess the performance indices of the integration of catfish, pig and rice so as to compare the production against the conventional methods of farming

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion