Fish Feed Processing Technology for Entrepreneurship Development in India

Abstract

The objective of feeding fish is to provide the optimum nutritional requirements for good health, growth, yield while minimizing wastage to optimize profits. Though natural feed forms the main source of nutrition, supplemental feeding is necessary to obtain increased production in ponds. Therefore, a good artificial feed not only facilitate in meeting nutritional requirements but also help to maintain good water stability and acceptance by the fish. To produce supplementary feed with the desired physical characteristics, feed processing and technology has a major role to play for quality feed production. Commercial feed is mainly used by few advanced and progressive farmers while the high cost is prohibitive for the small and marginal farmers. Moreover, non-conventional ingredients are normally not used for fish feed production by aqua feed industry, resulting into increased cost of the feed in the market. Some of the limitations in using non-conventional ingredients are poor utilization by fish either due to presence of anti-nutritional factors or insufficient processing. Furthermore, the scientific information on fish feed technology of conventional and non-conventional feed ingredients are limited. Production of feed as per the requirements essentially involves industrial processing that needs to be marketed in the form highly preferred by the end-users. Hence, the entrepreneurs need to access and use technical information and technology available at the research institutes to produce the desired commercial demand. The combination of the technical knowledge, technological package and business skill would certainly ensure establishment of the successful venture of feed production to cater the demand.