Aquaculture for all

Aquafeed To Boost Fishing Industry

Trout Nutrition +2 more

PAPUA NEW GUINEA - A new locally produced aquafeed is set to boost the country's fishing industry. Not yet available, the feed will mainly benefit farmers who specialise in trout and tilapia farming.

The collaborative work of the National Fisheries Authority (NFA), Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Department of Agriculture and Livestock has led to the production of the feed, which is created from local ingredients.

Trialling of the feed under farming conditions in the past five years has resulted in the semi-commercial production of the fish feed.

Alongside the rapid growth of Papua New Guinea's (PNG) fish processing sector, the new feed will be able to meet the increasing demand for aquafeed. Previously, fish feed has been imported into the country.

NFA and its partners have been working to address the demand through the establishment of mini-feed mills and research and development to find a locally available, affordable and nutritious fish feed.

The NFA displayed the new feed at the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) show at the beginning of May in Lae to promote fisheries and marine resources activities. As fish farmers saw the feed they became keen to learn the techniques, the ingredients, equipment the processes involved, reported the NFA.

NFAs aquaculture and inland fisheries division, responsible for fresh water aquaculture and inland fish farming, is taking the lead in this development, headed by pioneer aquaculturist Jacob Wani.

Currently, the number of fish farming activities both fresh water and marine areas have increased overwhelmingly as a result of NFAs support to the fish farmers through the project development fund.

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