Investigation of the production and use of alternative feeds by fish farmers in fish farming in Nagongera sub-county in Tororo District-Uganda

Abstract

This research project documented the production and use of alternative fish feeds by fish farmers in the parishes of (Pokongo, Kadewere, Okuta, Katajula) in Nagongera Sub-County in Tororo district located in Eastern Uganda. The increasing costs of commercial feeds have made it inevitable for fish farmers in Nagongera Sub-County to resort to the alternative fish feeds to feed the cultured fish species. the list of fish farmers in Tororo district was obtained from the District Fishery Officer`s office and Nagongera Sub-County selected because it had the highest number of active fish farmers (7) and the 8th obtained through a pilot study and from the survey conducted using open ended questionnaires, all the fish farmers used alternative feeds as the fish feed. Alternative feeds were produced using locally available materials and the most used materials as alternative feeds were maize bran (87.5%), blood as blood meal (50%), Yam leaves (12.5%), white ants (12.5%), swirl (12.5%) and small fish (12.5%). The farmers did not follow the appropriate and standardized feed processing protocol during alternative feed production and mainly relied on local methods like estimation of amount of the ingredients used in the processing of the feeds and improper formulation as evidenced by improper balancing of the nutrients, the selection of raw materials and quality of the ingredients was not considered and mainly relied on contaminated maze bran containing stones, sand and this ingredient were not examined for quality check and also for nutrient analysis and absence of pelleting machines in all the sampled areas in Nagongera Sub-county and during application casting without considering the amount given and nutritional requirements of the farmed species. Hence the need to train the fish farmers in Nagongera Sub-County about the production and use of nutritionally balanced and cost effective alternative feeds so as to increase fish production through aquaculture in the Country. Keywords: Aquaculture, Alternative fish feeds, Nagongera, Locally available materials, Small- scale fish farmer