FAO study tracks feed cost efficiencies of aquaculture farms in Jiangsu

 

 

High cost of commercial feed, problems procuring good quality commercial feed were cited as factors in an FAO study of Jiangsu carp farmers.

 

The study "Economics of aquaculture feeding practices in selected Asian countries", focussed on 60 aquaculture farms spread over 10 counties in Jiangsu province. 

 

Jiangsu province is well known as a centre for pond carp polyculture. The province produced 2 million tonnes of carp in 2004, which accounted for 28 percent of national carp production.

 

Fish production in the province was a much more profitable venture than crop farming.

 

The average gross margin of fish farms was US$2 466/ha/year, almost double the average gross margin from agricultural crop production (about US$1 000/ha/year), the report noted.

 

In the province, the grass carp, black carp, Wuchang bream, common carp and crucian carp are the major users of fish feed, and silver carp and bighead carp are the major filtering feed fishes.

 

Field survey for the case studies was carried out between October 2005 and February 2006.

 

Farmers were divided into three broad categories of feeding practices. These were (i) use of industrially produced pelleted feed (intensive farmers), (ii) use of industrial and farm-made feed mixes (semi-intensive), and (iii) use of on-farm feeds consisting of a mixture of locally available feed ingredients (traditional/ extensive).

 

The average pond area for intensive, semi-intensive and traditional fish farm investigated under the case study was 1.27, 0.74 and 3.96 ha respectively.

 

Semi-intensive farms used a combination of commercial and farm-made feeds. Likewise, fertilizer and manure were applied in fish ponds.

 

Inorganic fertilizer was used in fish ponds in order to improve the water quality and plankton biomass.

 

The average production costs per ha per year ranged from US$3,839 among traditional farms to US$6 494 and US$10 967 among semi-intensive and intensive farms.

 

Most of the farms (45 percent) cited lack of capital as the greatest limitation to expansion. The rest cited  (45 percent), poor market (12 percent), limited seed availability (7 percent), and lack of technical know how (5 percent).

 

All farms face high costs when making farm-made feeds while some semi-intensive farms found it difficult to obtain supplementary feeds.

 

Supplementary feeds were applied in all farming systems and included rice bran, wheat, oil cake, soybean cake, green grasses, waste water, snail meat and worm meal depending on local availability. Silkworm meal was also used as supplementary feeds in some farms.

 

Traditional fish farms applied more supplementary feed.

 

History
 

Chinese fish farming evolved from low output based extensive aquaculture systems in the 1970s, with no additional feed input, through to basic feeding systems, i.e. grass for grass carp and Wuchang bream, snails for black carp, and rice bran for crucian carp, to intensive systems using supplementary feed.

 

As farmers realized that additional feed increased production, the scale of diversification from extensive to intensive production increased.

 

One benefit for polyculture systems was that farmers also found that food waste and feces fertilized the ponds and generated natural food organisms that benefited filter feeders.

 

The combination of induced breeding, feed management and polyculture were the three contributory factors to the fast growth in Chinese aquaculture production, the report said. 

 

Fertilizers to increase bio-feed
 

A quarter of fish farmers applied fertilizer to improve natural food organisms in ponds.

 

Farmers used livestock manure and other low cost inorganic fertilizers such as TSP, and urea.

 

However, intensive farmers also used a new compound fertilizer (commercially know as FeiShuiBao) to improve water quality.

 

Feed included industrial commercial fish feed, compound feed and farm-made feed.

 

Intensive fish farms were dependent on pellet fish feed during the grow-out period.

 

The average content of protein was 30.6 percent for intensive fish farms, and 25.0 percent for semi-intensive fish farms.

 

The use of farm made aquafeed is becoming unpopular among fish farmers due to the high cost of operation and fixed investment.

 

Intensive farms use more labour than the other farming systems (461 man days/ha/year) compared to semi-intensive and traditional fish farms (357 and 311 man days/ ha respectively).

 

Feed costs
 

The amount intensive fish farms spent on pellet feeds was more than triple that of semi-intensive farms (US$2 872.8/ha versus US$800.6/ha). Traditional farms spend just US$11.3/ha on pelleted feeds.

 

Consequently, total feed cost was highest among intensive fish farms at US$3 551/ha, followed by semi-intensive fish farms and traditional fish farms with US$1 361/ha/year and US$412/ha/year respectively.

 

While intensive farms consumed more commercial pellets in their fish farming operations, semi-intensive fish farms applied partial commercial pellets and some farms used farm-made feeds to reduce costs.

 

Feed costs account for 32 percent, 21 percent and 11 percent of total costs in intensive, semi-intensive and traditional fish farms respectively.

 

Other production costs
 

Fingerlings, feed and labour accounted for the bulk of production costs, with fertilizer accounting for a minor portion.

 

For all farms, fingerlings accounted for the greatest cost, particularly for that of the traditional farm (47 percent). 

 

Feed costs featured less significantly in traditional farms as well, accounting for just 10.2 percent of production costs. This rises to 21 percent for semi-intensive farms and 32.4 percent for intensive farms.  

 

While more intensive farms and semi-intensive farms wished to expand ( 50-percent and 45-percent respectively), traditional farms preferred to stay put, with only 10- percent wishing to expand their operations.  

 

Despite it being a low-priced commodity, the market for carp is still considered strong within China indicating a fairly prosperous future for farmers, the report said.

 

Results of the study imply that intensive and semi-intensive fish farms have higher input level and higher production, the economic return is also higher. The major factor is the adoption of commercial feed and intensive feed management. Improved fish production and gross income will result from a combination of increases in adoption of commercial feed inputs and intensive feed management, the report said.

 

For more of the report, please click here