BATTLE FOR FOOD

| Author:
OLUYINKA ALAWODE
Animal feeds
Maize, groundnuts, soya beans
and fish are normally used as
feed ingredients by commercial
feed millers or by farms that
formulate their own feeds. They
are very expensive because they
are also consumed by humans.
The high prices cause the
farmers to earn very little profit,
and the livestock and fish
products they sell – milk, meat
and eggs are in turn very
expensive.
But there are now scientifically
proven, cheaper solutions to
ending this competition for food
between humans and beasts.
These entail feeding these
livestock and fish with some
wastes or their by-products. They
are maggots, earthworms, fish
intestines, insects, Jatropha
cakes, Ackee apple (Bilingha
sapida) zooplanktons and
phytoplanktons, cassava peels,
palm kernel residues, cassava
leaves and oil palm leaves.

MAGGOTS
Razak Olawale Tijani is a medical
practitioner of 33 years
experience. He has been into fish
farming for nine years. He says,
“At a seminar, we were told that
if one could use substitutes like
maggots it would cut down our
cost of production. So, we
started to develop a maggotry
out of our poultry farm wastes.”
He adds confidently, “I must tell
people that feeding fish with
maggots does not make the fish
unwholesome. We are just
converting maggot protein to
fish protein and it is not
injurious to health. I have been
able to confirm that.” He adds,
“Our plan is to produce maggots
in commercial quantities.
Abdulsalaam Adebayo, the
doctor’s farm manager says, “The
fish has been responding
positively as the maggots make
them grow very fast.”

Dried maggots
At the Songhai Farm Centre in
Port Novo, Benin Republic, the
maggots are produced in dry
forms. Franklin Agah, the
aquaculture supervisor says
“When we get all these wastes,
we add a little water and mix
everything. Flies would be
attracted and lay their eggs and
in three to four days maggots
would emerge.”
Milled maggots
Kehinde Ogunyinka, the Lagos
state coordinator, Commercial
Agriculture Development Project
(CADP) says, “We carried out an
experiment in 2006. The analysis
showed that wet maggot had 18
percent crude protein and dried
maggot has 56 percent crude
protein. Therefore we
recommended that farmers use
dried maggots. By grinding the
maggots into powder they can
last for six months. They can
replace fish meal completely in
fish feed.”

Small scale
Ibigbenyi Apiambo, president, in
Port Harcourt breeds maggots
and worms in his home
compound where he also rears
fish for commercial purposes.
Research
Ebinimi J. Ansa, an aquaculture
researcher, a fellow of African
Women in Agricultural Research
and Development (AWARD) says,
“We carry out research to find
out what the fish eat in their
natural environment. The most
common unconventional feeds
are insects, maggots and
earthworms. Those feeds which
we call unconventional are
actually the natural food of fish.”
Intestines
Helen Eze, owner of Harmony
Catfish Farm, uses the intestines
from the fish she rears as
supplements in the feeding of
the fish. She says, “The intestines
from catfish is good in the
feeding of catfish.”
PLANKTONS
Franklin Agah, the aquaculture
supervisor at the Port Novo
Songhai Centre also points out
the use of zooplankton and
phytoplankton that are reared by
fertilising the water with the
droppings of livestock such as
poultry, pigs, ruminants and so
on. He says they are used in
feeding fish.
JATROPHA/ACKEE APPLE SEEDS
Moshood Belewu, a professor at
the department of animal
production, University of Ilorin,
Nigeria has led researches in the
detoxification of poisonous
Jatropha seeds and Ackee apple
seeds and they are now safe for
the feeding of all livestock and
fish as protein supplements in
feeds.
UNCONVENTIONAL FEEDS USAGE
Commercialisation
The university plans to train
farmers on the usage as well as
go into large scale production in
partnership with Biotop Green
Oils and Energy Limited.
Cassava peels
Kolawole Adebayo, a lecturer at
the department of agricultural
extension, Federal University of
Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB)
explains that through a simple
process, the poisonous cyanide
contained in wet cassava peels is
removed. Farmers now use dried
cassava peels in feeding pigs,
ruminants and poultry. In poultry
feed, the dried cassava peels are
milled before they are added as
energy source to replace maize.
PALM KERNEL
Adebayo also says that many of
his colleagues are involved in
research work in the utilisation
palm kernel wastes as alternative
energy source in livestock feed.
Cassava/oil palm leaves
Afioluwa Mogaji of X-Ray Farm
Consulting points out that
cassava leaves and oil palm
leaves are effective feed
ingredients especially for
ruminants.