Aquaculture: a promising solution for food insecurity, poverty and malnutrition in Kenya

Food insecurity remains one of the most visible dimensions of poverty. The increasing population amid competition for land and water resources means that the global demand for food will continue to increase. In Kenya, the food insecurity trend is worrying as the population is expected to hit 55 million by 2020 against an annually declining arable land per capita and consequent increase in food prices. The Kenyan agricultural sector has failed to either eliminate or reduce malnourishment for poor populations as the annual national production for both staple food and livestock products fall short of national consumption levels. The nutritional deficiency levels remain high among a significant segment of the Kenyan population. With increasing food production challenges such as dwindling capture fisheries and impacts of climate change becoming more eminent, solutions to food insecurity and malnutrition in Kenya must bring about quick results in food availability by stimulating more own-food production. Aquaculture has so far been recognized as an important opportunity to enhance household food security in developing countries. The existing literature reveals scattered but increasing evidence of the contribution of aquaculture to nutritional security through direct fish consumption and income stability among vulnerable groups through involvement in aquaculture value chain linkages. This paper reveals the status of food insecurity, poverty and malnutrition problems and discusses aquaculture initiatives as the remedial solutions. This paper also provides a framework for examining aquaculture’s value chain linkages to food and nutritional security and national economic growth by elucidating key pathways concerning the role of aquaculture in household food and income systems. The authors advocate for clear and sustainable national policies for aquaculture development to address food insecurity and poverty questions more sharply. More empirical evidence should be collected on the varied aquaculture opportunities to improve the income, employment and food consumption levels within the poor households.Key words: KMFRI, MDGs, Aquaculture, Food insecurity, Poverty, Kenya, Malnutrition, Fish, Agricultur

Fish farming in Tanzania: the availability and nutritive value of local feed ingredients

An investigative field survey was performed to gather baseline data on locally available feed ingredients and fish farming practices in different regions of Tanzania. More than 80% of respondents relied on locally available feed ingredients as a major feed supplement for their cultured fish, with maize bran being the most commonly used feed ingredient in all regions. Crude protein content in most analyzed local feed ingredients was medium-high, while crude fat content was high in some animal and agricultural by-products, and medium-low in other ingredients. Most respondents were males and the majority of fish farms were owned by individuals. Earthen pond was the most common fish farming system in all regions except Dar es Salaam. Semi-intensively mixed-sex tilapia monoculture was the dominating fish farming practice. The results of the survey presented provide a good platform for future development of culture systems and feeding strategies for tilapia in Tanzania

Optimization of extruder cooking conditions for the manufacture of fish feeds using response surface methodology

Abstract A composite blend consisting of sunflower cake, maize germ, wheat bran, fresh water shrimps and cassava flour was extruded using a single‐screw extruder to produce expanded fish feed pellets. The effects of temperature (80–120 °C), die diameter (2–4 mm), and feed pre‐conditioning time (50–150 s; steam 400 kPa) on properties of the pellets (expansion ratio, bulk density, floatability, durability, water absorption, water solubility, water stability, and in‐vitro protein digestibility) were investigated using response surface methodology. Regression equations describing the effect of each variable on the product responses were obtained. The pellets extruded using a factor combination of 120 °C extruder barrel temperature, 2 mm die diameter, and 100 s of feed pre‐conditioning time gave most desirable pellet floatability (100%), durability index (99%), expansion ratio (2.64), water absorption index (4.12), water solubility index (9.31), water stability (87%), bulk density (479 g/L), and in vitro protein digestibility (69.97%) with a composite desirability of 0.88. Practical applications Extrusion is a modern feed processing method whose use is fast gaining popularity among small feed processors in developing countries. However, extrusion is a process that involves many parameters that need to be optimized for desirable end properties. These findings guide fish feed manufacturers on the optimum conditions for single screw extruders for production of feeds with desirable properties especially for the fish types that are top feeders. In addition, the results offer important insights on how temperature, die diameter, and feed pre‐conditioning, may be manipulated to influence properties of extruded aquafeed when using simple low‐cost small‐scale extruders