Survey on Nutrition and Feeding Practices of Fish by Farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine the feeding practices adopted by fish farmers in Ondo State Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives were to describe their socio economic characteristics, evaluate the availability of feeds and feed ingredients in the study area, identify the type of fish farming practices and characteristics in Ondo state, determine the frequency and ingredients used to feed fish and identify the constraints to efficient use of feeds in the study area. A multi-stage sampling method was used to select fish farmers in the study area. The study was conducted using well-structured questionnaires, administered to respondents. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results showed that majority of the fish farmers in the area were male (81.1%). Most of them were married (62.5%) and they were mostly tertiary education certificate holders (52.2%). Higher proportions of the farmers were of the age range of between 30 and 40 years (43.3%); and most of them were full time fish farmers (57.8%). Most of the fish farmers cultured Clarias gariepinus (93.3%). Substantial number of the fish farmers use commercial feed rather than local feed. (78.8%), with majority of the fish farmers making preference of earthen ponds over other culture facilities (37.9 Significant percentage (37.5%) of the farmers used maize while those that use fishmeal accounted for 88.2% as the source of energy and protein respectively in compounding farm-made feed. Some of the major constraints faced by the fish farmers  was high cost of feed (34.4%), which was ranked first, followed by scarcity of ingredients (13.3%), inadequate funding (11,1%) then high cost of  transportation (1,1%).