History of Aquaculture in Nigeria PDF

Okay, here is the conversion of the document in the image to markdown format: # AFM314 NOTES ## HISTORY OF AQUACULTURE Aquaculture can be said to be relatively recent in sub-Saharan Africa [Nigeria inclusive] compared to Asia. In fact, aquaculture is said to originate from Asia. The cold water cul...

Okay, here is the conversion of the document in the image to markdown format: # AFM314 NOTES ## HISTORY OF AQUACULTURE Aquaculture can be said to be relatively recent in sub-Saharan Africa [Nigeria inclusive] compared to Asia. In fact, aquaculture is said to originate from Asia. The cold water culture of Trout, limited to high-altitude areas was introduced into Kenya and Madagascar in the late 20's. The first successful pond production of Tilapias in southern Zaire dates from 1946. In fact from 1940s till date, fish farming technology had continued to be introduced from Europe into various African countries and development had continued to spread rapidly. However, during the 1960's aquaculture development not only stopped but regressed sharply and brought negative returns. This was because most ponds were abandoned because they were poorly designed and constructed and as such unmanageable. In addition to this, there was a lack of stocking material, drought and political unrest in most African countries. Although Africa is blessed with lots of fresh water environments [such as rivers, streams, lakes, dams, etc.] with diverse fauna and flora, very few species have been cultured. The reason had been attributed to a lack of native tradition of aquaculture [fish rearing] in Africa with Africans accustomed to obtaining wild-fish with hooks or Nets [capture fisheries]. The first ancient record of fish culture in Africa can be traced to Egypt with a record of an Egyptian tomb decoration dated back to 2500 BC, illustrating the harvest of Tilapia and suggesting that Tilapia may have been cultured then. In Nigeria, the first recorded sign of fish culture can be traced to the former northern Nigerian with the northern Nigerian government constructing a pilot fish farm at Panyan near Jos to culture common carp in 1951. About the same time the construction of homestead fishpond was encouraged by the government of the western and eastern regions by establishing zonal seed production units and training centers. For historical analysis, conventional fish farming of aquaculture in Nigeria falls into distinct periods. These are: 1. (1950-1970) 2. 1970-date ### 1950-1970 Period This period popularized fish farming. Various regions of Nigeria became aware of the act of fish culture with the establishment of some pilot farms [ such as Panyan by Government. ] ### 1970-date This second phase concentrated on the expansion and establishment of demonstration fish farms in addition to bold attempts on reducing major constraints to rapid aquaculture development. Between 1970-1975, there was a remarkable increase in the number of fish farms built by Federal and State Governments of Nigeria and also private individuals. The third national Development plan (1975-1980) accorded low priority to aquaculture but private sector participation became significant due to the extension activities given by the government demonstration fish farms. However aquaculture was accorded a highly priority in the 4th nationally development plan [1980-1987] due to the encouraging private sector participation in the 1975-1980. 1978 to 1980 witnessed the construction of zonal seed production and training centers at Oyo for South-west, Umunna, Okigwe for the South-east Panyan, for the North-east, Mando[ Kaduna]. Part of the North- west fisheries project, [mainly Oyo and Panyam] were funded partly by UNDP, under the fish farming development and demonstration project and partly by the Federal /state Government. It is during this second developmental phase [1980-1987] to be precise that the activities of River Basin Development Authorities (RBDA) were encouraged by the government to build commercial fish farms and to demonstrate the economic viability of aquaculture. Since then more commercial fish farms had continued to come up in Nigeria (even till date]. The bulk of commercial fish farms are located in the flood plain areas and the Niger- Delta/fadama areas such as River state, Delta state etc. today, aquaculture had continued to be popular with private commercials farms even striving to be self dependent in areas of fish seed supply (fingerlings) and fish feed production. The potentials noted to be very high, but it is not yet fully tapped to help eliminate the food shortage (fish as source of cheap animal protein) in Nigeria. However the growth of aquaculture is not very satisfactory or at a low rate because of some constraints which will be highlighted later. ### Natural Fish Food 1. Planktons (phytoplankton and zooplankton) 2. Parts of higher plants (macrophytes) such as leaves, small stems 3. Blood and tissue fluids of other fishes 4. Annelid worms 5. Molluscs e.g snails, clams, mussels etc. 6. Crustaceans; copepods, cladocerans 7. Insects and their larvae 8. Eggs and larvae of fishes themselves 9. Birds 10. Frogs and toads 11. Rotifers ### Artificial Feed Ingredients * Plant protein sources are; * Groundnut cake * Palm kernel cake * Soya bean meal * Cotton seed cake * Sunflower seed meal * Cashew nut meal. * Cowpea * Locust bean e.t.c * Animal protein sources include; * Fish meal * Blood meal * Skin milk powder * Feather meal * Poultry offal meal * Termites/insects, * Earthworms, * Maggots. * Poultry eggs * Meat meal etc. * Sources of carbohydrates are; * Cereal grains like maize, guinea corn (sorghum), millet, rice bran, wheat bran and spent grains ### Other food sources * Leafs of pawpaw, * Leafs of coffee, * Water hyacinth, * Duck weed, and * Sea weeds etc. * Sugarcane (Molasses) * Microbial protein yeast * Leaf protein concentrate ### Some Information on Feed and Food conversion 1. Fish and shrimp are extremely efficient in converting feed into high quality protein. On average farmed fish require 1.1kg of feed to gain 1kg body mass compared with 1.7kg for poultry and 6.6kg for cattle. 2. Plant protein materials commonly used in fish feed are soya-bean meal, groundnut cake and cottonseed cake. It is important for farmers to recognize at least the most common nutritive deficiency symptoms. These may occur when fish are feed nutrient deficient diets or raised in a low nutrient-input culture system. 3. Typically food conversion ratios range from 8 to 15kg of feed material per kg of fish produced. The estimated food conversion ratio for the supplementary feeds available is 6;1 4. Feed conversion ratios are important because they help the farmer to know how much amount of fish will be required in the growth cycle of animals. This servers as a powerful tool by letting the farmer know what choices he should make in order to maximize the profitability of his business 5. Farmers can calculate optimum feeding rates based on the average size in length or weight and number of fish in the tank, raceway or pond. Farmed fish typically are fed 1-5% of their body weight. 6. Feed conversion efficiency or ratio is fairly simple calculation to perform. The total weight of feed is divided by the net production (final weight minus starting weight) to obtain the feed conversion ratio. 7. Several factors can influence FCR, including genetics, feeding regime, water quality and temperature. In general, faster growing fish strains will have lower FCRs than slower growing strains. Improving FCR can be achieved by optimizing all aspects of the production system from hatchery to harvest