The Department of Agriculture (DA) through the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) partnered with the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center-Aquaculture Division (SEAFDEC-AQD) for the development of low-cost feeds for milkfish and tilapia.
The agency said the feeds uses by-products from corn, poultry abattoirs and coconut-fermented copra meal to replace fish meal as protein source.
The DA said the feeds went through field tests which showed that milkfish and tilapia fed with the alternative feed formulation can compete with commercially-fed in terms of growth performance and other biological parameters.
“One of the major problems that we wanted to address through this project is to lower the cost of feeds, which comprises 50 to 70 percent of the production cost. By making the feed cost-effective and sustainable it will increase profits and encourage more fish farmers to venture in aquaculture,” said Lilian Garcia, NFRDI director, in a statement.
Mamauag said the SEAFDEC-AQD feeds costs only P27 per kg for milkfish compared to the commercial feeds cost of P33 to P35 per kg. The alternative feeds for tilapia costs iP24 per kg against the P32 to P34 per kg from commercial brands or a difference of P8 to P10 per kg or 25 to 32 percent – Jed Macapagal
