COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS AND GROWTH EFFECTS OF PELLETED AND UNPELLETED ON-FARM FEED ON AFRICAN CATFISH (CLARIAS GARIEPINUS BURCHELL 1822) IN EARTHEN PONDS

Fish feed constitutes 40-60 % of the total operational costs of a fish farm. Commercial feeds are often too expensive for rural fish farmers. Consequently, farmers use non-conventional and locally available fish feed ingredients including agro-industrial by-products. These feeds have not led to increased pond productivity due to poor processing, higher fibre content, and anti-nutritional factors that limit nutrient bio-availability. Farmers have not embraced processing of fish feeds because the cost-effectiveness of processing has not been clearly demonstrated. The African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) is an important farmed fish in sub-Saharan Africa hence the need for research on its nutrition and growth performance. The growth performance and cost-benefit of using pelleted diets formulated from locally available feed ingredients on C. gariepinus were evaluated in a rural African setting. The experiment included diets that differed in the ingredients and form used (pelleted and un-pelleted). Four isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets were formulated from freshwater shrimp (Caridina nilotica), rice bran (Oryza sativa) and wheat bran (Triticum aestivum). The diets wer