Contemporary issues in fisheries and aquaculture: a review on non – conventional feed ingredients for fish feed in Nigeria

Abstract

In Africa, Nigeria offers the largest market for fisheries products. Fish culture is gaining importance in Nigeria as locally available raw materials such as yam, plantain, banana, cowpeas, mucuna, maize, cassava, millet, sorghum, groundnut, sunhemp seed and brewery wastes are considered as potential materials for fish feed. Non–conventional feeds are locally available feedstuff which are not standardized and the usage is not widely-spread. In most cases, they are not consumed by man. Sadly, Nigerian economy had depended on imported feedstuffs to supplement the domestic conventional feedstuffs, however, the country is currently looking into a way of improving local feedstuffs production to minimize importation. In Fisheries and Aquaculture, there are many contemporary issues but this paper focuses on the use of non–conventional feed ingredients like Typha flour in fish feed. Several parts of Typha are edible including the rhizome. Research has shown that the plant is rich in energy, carbohydrates, sugars, dietary fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals and water. The competition for the conventional feed ingredients for human and animal consumption has resulted in significant price escalations hence the need for on-going research on alternative
ingredients for use in aquafeed. Thus, great attention is given to the production of effective and cheap feed that will benefit fish farmers in Africa because fish feed is very important. Despite the fact that several studies have been done in Nigeria to replace fishmeal with other proteins of plant & animal origin but the results have been range from poor to very good in terms of fish growth and fish conversion efficiency.