Bio-Economic Assessment of Novel Fish Feed Formulation Software (FUTA AQUAFEEDAPP) for African Catfish Clarias gariepinus (Burchell 1822) Raised in Recirculatory Aquaculture System

Abstract

In the current study, data on nutritional composition and cost of conventional and non-conventional fish feed ingredients were gathered, a spreadsheet was created to bank the data. Four fish feeds were formulated and produced using three conventional fish feed formulation methods namely Pearson’s Square feed formulation method and two other conventional fish feed softwares, WINFEEDTM, ALLIXTM and a developed software (FUTA AQUAFEEDAPP); the software was developed using data analytical tools: simple harmonic equation, linear programming and stochastic programming techniques. The nutrient composition of the four diets were evaluated in the laboratory. The result of the proximate analyses indicated that the four diets met the crude protein requirements for African Catfish fingerlings, the values ranged from 40.68±0.62 (Pearson square) to 40.98±0.86 (ALLIX). There were no significant differences in the moisture content, crude protein, crude fibre, crude lipid and NFE across all treatments, however there was significant difference in the ash content across the four diets. The result of the cost assessment across the four treatments were significantly different, it revealed that AQUAFEED had the lowest investment cost ($1/Kg) when compared with the three other treatments, while Pearson Square had the highest investment cost ($1.5/kg) due to the high inclusion of fishmeal in the diet.