Smart farms

: 06 June 2022; Hits: 4074

Tilapia fish feeding guide

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By Munene George

“It is difficult to make a business case for feeding fish on home-made meals as they only utilise about five per cent of the feed, while the rest is wasted,” said Audrey Nyambura, Skretting East Africa’s Regional Technical Manager.Speaking during a seminar on fish feed management held by Foodtech Africa Aquaculture Academy she helped outline how tilapia farmers can best feed their fish to achieve peak growth performance.

Fry Feeding

From birth, tilapia fry/young require a high protein diet, i.e, up to 50 per cent, for 21 days after birth.

Tilapia weight increases from 0.02 to 25 grams (1000X) from hatch to juvenile/ fingerling stage. They are extremely vulnerable at this level and need dedicated starter feed to sustain this growth.

Getting your feeding right at the starter level ensures good performance for the rest of the production cycle. They will be able to withstand poor water quality and fluctuating temperatures, as well as have strong immunity.

On average, tilapia should be fed on 42-21 per cent of their body weight at the first week of birth. 21-10 per cent in the second week and 10-9 per cent in week three.

By this time they will have attained at least 0.35 grams and are fed 9-8 per cent body weight until they are 2.5 grams. Between 2.5 grams and 10 grams, they are fed on 8-7 per cent of their body weight.

Before they graduate to growers (10-25 grams) they are fed on 7-6 per cent body weight.

It is recommended that a farmer feed his fish at the fry level to satiation (until full) because the rate of feed conversion at this level is at its highest

The feed amount should also be adapted to eating behaviour and the fry can be fed up to 12 times a day.

You should avoid:

Relying on natural food
Feeding starter feeds for other fish species
Crush and use grower feed (low in protein)

Fry feed should have:

Uniform crumble size
Water stability
Slow sinking properties --give all fry an equal feeding opportunity (faster bigger fingerling swim up to the surface to feed while the smaller less-mature fish feed on the sinking crumble)

Grower Feeding

After this, they are at the grower level/ fingerling stage and their protein requirement reduces to 35-30 per cent. As tilapia fish grow they are able to digest more carbohydrates in their diet.

Grower feed is optimised for fish between 25 to 1000 grams.

At the grower stage (≥25g), tilapia is fed on 5.5-5 per cent of body weight until they attain 60 grams; 5 to 3.7 per cent of their weight to 200 grams, and 3.7-1.6 grams until they hit 750 grams.

Algae in ponds can partially substitute commercial protein sources.

In grow-out units, fish need to be fed two to three times a day for at least 30 minutes depending on the size of the housing unit This enables feeding of the fish across various levels of growth.

Daily feed for every pond should be recorded with the ratio of feed conversion being noted.

Breeder Feeding

Broodstock diet --often overlooked by most farmers --- determines the quality of future fry. Females need high protein and high-fat diets to produce nutrient-rich eggs which should look bright and vibrant.

“These fats are expended during breeding; most people who have dealt with broodstock will notice that they do not eat for days as they incubate their eggs in their mouth,” explained Audrey.

Tilapia are continuous spawners, which means they have a high protein and energy turnover rate.

Kenya imports up to 7,000 tonnes of aquafeed annually, with fish farmers pointing out that local feeds are often ineffective and uneconomical.

Tilapia accounts for about 80 percent of Kenya's fish production and has a fingerling demand of about 100 million per year

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: 18 May 2022; Hits: 4094

Kenya running out of maize & wheat stocks

Maize grain

By George Munene

According to Kenya’s United Grain Miller’s Association, the country has run out of maize, while existing wheat stocks are expected to last until September.

The price of a 90kg bag of maize has jumped 50 per cent from Sh2,800 at the start of the year to Sh4,200. A two-kilogram packet now retails for a historic Sh150.

Kenya typically relies on her neighbours to meet its maize demand. However, it will be forced to look further ashore as Uganda and Tanzania both also experience depressed production.

“We are going to run out of maize in the next few months and to control the rising cost of flour, we need to import the produce,” said Agriculture Cabinet secretary Peter Munya.

He also partly attributed the acute shortage to farmers and brokers hoarding grain.

Wheat

Consumption of wheat food products has overtaken maize across the country. Wheat is also the second-largest grown cereal crop after maize.

Kenya imports more than 60 per cent (550,000 T/year) of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine. This has been made impossible to access by the ongoing conflict between the neighbours.

With this in mind, the government had looked to tap the world's second-largest wheat exporter, India, to bolster its reserves and contain prices which have risen by 40 per cent this year.

This move now looks out of the question following India’s announcement last week of a ban on wheat exports to curb soaring domestic prices.

The Cereal Millers Association of Kenya points out that both the country’s purchasing power and wheat milling capacity have diminished due to these high prices.

With the global price of wheat up 5.9 per cent just this week, other countries are expected to take similar protectionist measures.

Dry weather conditions and heatwaves across most parts of the world have resulted in poor harvests.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture program (FAO) the war in Eastern Europe is worsening an already existing food crisis in Africa. Before the war started in February, the cost of food staples had risen 23 per cent last year, faster than any year in the last 10.

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: 13 May 2022; Hits: 4675

Government approves leasing of idle state land to private farmers

Land in Kenya

By George Munene

The Kenyan government will lease out idle land owned by Kenyan parastatals to private farmers in an effort to arrest rising food insecurity in the country.

The move greenlit by Kenya's cabinet on Thursday seeks to reclaim public land and contract it out to private farmers for intensive agriculture.

“Cabinet approved the policy on large-scale commercialisation of public land held for agricultural production. The policy seeks to provide a framework for utilising idle land owned by public institutions for large-scale commercial agricultural production,” said a press statement from Thursday's Cabinet meeting.

Kenya is facing spiking food prices and food shortages caused by a third consecutive below-average rainy season; the Russia-Ukraine war-- two countries that make up a bulk of the country's grain and fertiliser imports -- and skyrocketing global fertiliser prices.

Agriculture and agricultural-based products have risen on average by 20 per cent from this time last year, increasing the cost of living especially for the country’s poor -- 19 million Kenyans for whom 36 per cent of their income goes into buying food.

In February 2022, the Kenya Food Security Steering Group reported there were 3.1 million food-insecure people in pastoral and marginal agricultural areas of the country, a 48 per cent increase from August 2021.

Some of the biggest landowners of unused parastatal land in Kenya include the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, Kenya Railways, University of Nairobi, and Kenya Prisons.

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