Production and use of farm-made fish feeds by small-scale pond fish farmers in Ghana

Abstract

The increasing costs of commercial fish feeds have made it imperative for most small-scale pond fish farmers in Ghana to resort to the use of alternative feed types to feed cultured fish. Some fish farmers rotate commercial feeds with farm-made types. This study was carried out to investigate the production and use of farm-made fish feeds by small-scale pond fish farmers in five major pond fish farming Regions (Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Central, Volta and Western) in Ghana. Of the 147 farmers interviewed in all the five regions, 86 farmers used farm-made feeds of which 37 depended solely on farm-made feeds whilst 49 used both commercial and farm-made feeds. Farm-made feeds were produced using locally available ingredients and the most used ones were groundnut bran (92%), fish meal (90%), wheat bran (74%) and maize (60%). The farmers did not follow appropriate and standardized feed formulation protocol during farm-made fish feed production. Hence, farm-made fish feeds produced by all farmers interviewed were found not to be nutritionally balanced. There is need for small-scale pond fish farmers in Ghana to be trained in formulation and production of nutritionally balanced and cost-effective fish feeds so as to increase fish productionthrough aquaculture in the country.