Battle for food: Ending competition between man and beast

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

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.

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.

Policy

Mogaji urged appropriate policies on waste utilisation by policy makers to ensure a cleaner environment.

This research is carried out by Oluyinka Alawode with the support of the African Story Challenge, a project targeted at encouraging research-based multimedia storytelling by African journalists. The documentary is also available on audio-visual and audio CDs with links on social media sites. For more enquiries, contact ag@s19080.p615.sites.pressdns.com/en, +2348037240471

 By: OLUYINKA ALAWODE