LOW COST FISH FEED PREPARATION FOR ISLAND AQUACULTURE

Abstract

The farmers of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) are practicing aquaculture since the early settlement period. On an average, the Islands produce around 800-1000 kg/ha/yr of freshwater fishes as compared to 8-10 t/ha/yr in mainland India or other Southeast Asian countries and its about 10 times lower than that of mainland India. This immense lag in production is attributed to the improper pond management and feeding practices followed by the farmers. Various problems faced by Island farmers include unavailability of good quality feed, high cost of formulated feed and mainland based feed ingredients, lack of knowledge about alternative indigenous feed ingredients available in ANI. Owing to these reasons, the Island farmers are forced to follow the improper feeding practices which hinder the productivity of the farm. Educating the farmers to utilize the underutilized, indigenous fish feed ingredients enables them to increase the unit production at an affordable price. Feed based aquaculture can create a revolution by increasing the fish production from the same unit area thereby satisfies the consumer demand of better quality protein at a cheaper and affordable price.