June 19, 2008

 

The lack of capital has hindered traditional aquaculture farmers in the Philippines to use commercial feeds, according to the Economics of Aquaculture Feeding Practices in Selected Asian Countries report by the FAO.
 
The study carried out in the Philippines showed that among traditional farms surveyed, 90 percent said the high cost of industrial feeds is a major concern for them. Although these farms recognize the importance of using commercial feeds, the high cost per given unit has discouraged them from utilizing these feeds.

 

Relying on locally developed and non-adoption of commercial feeds have resulted in lower yields for traditional farms.

 

In contrast, intensive and semi-intensive farms, which use commercial feeds, have reported higher fish weights and yields. This allowed these farms to generate high gross revenues, gross and net margins, net returns on land, labour and capital. 

 

The case study gave a comparative analysis of three categories of feeding systems, namely traditional, intensive and semi-intensive.
 

 

Industrial feeds were generally used for both milkfish and prawn consumption during the rearing period and was the most expensive type of feed, costing about P10 to P15 per kilogramme.

 

Aqua green plants, also called hydrophytes and macrophytes, were used during the rearing stages as well. It cost P1 to P2 per kilogramme.

 

Bread and noodles were considered as supplementary feeds for milkfish production and were priced about P6 per kilogramme. These were used mainly during the on-growing or grow-out period before harvesting. These supplementary feeds were used to fatten milkfish immediately before they were sold.

 

Snail meat was also fed during the grow-out stage to harden the covering of the prawn, which increases marketability.

 

All semi-intensive and intensive farms were found to use commercial feeds in their milkfish and prawn productions.

 

Traditional farms did not use these feeds. Aqua green plants were used as the main feed item for all traditional farms.

 

Most of the semi-intensive and intensive farms also fed their fish with aqua green plants as supplementary feed, which help them lower feed costs.

 

Old bread was a popular feed item used by 92 percent of all respondents during the milkfish grow-out period. Feeding old bread was meant to add more fats to the belly of milkfish in order to enhance its marketability. In some instances, intensive farms would resort to using noodles during the grow-out period to improve the quality of milkfish.

 

Intensive farms fed an average of 58.3 and 4.9 kilogrammes (53.3 and 1.39 kilogrammes on dry weight basis) for every 100 pieces of milkfish and prawn, respectively while semi-intensive farms fed lower averages of 31.9 and 4.5 kilogrammes (21.03 and 0.73 kilogrammes on dry weight basis) per 100 pieces of milkfish and prawn, respectively.

 

Traditional farms had the least feed consumption with 28.6 and 2.7 kilogrammes (16.08 and 0.28 kilogrammes on dry weight basis) per 100 pieces of milkfish and prawns, respectively.

 

Consumption of industrial feeds was higher among intensive farms at 33.8 and 1.1 kilogrammes (30.4 and 1.0 kilgorammes on dry weight basis) for every 100 pieces of milkfish and prawns, respectively.

 

Semi-intensive farms consumes only 8.1 and 0.3 kilogrammes (7.3 and 0.29 kilogrammes on dry weight basis) of commercial feed per 100 pieces of milkfish and prawn, correspondingly. Traditional farms did not use any industrial feed.

 

The annual average aquaculture production cost was highest among intensive farms at US$1,975 per hectare. This was followed by traditional farms, which incurred an average production cost of US$1,249 per hectare. Semi-intensive farms recorded the lowest production cost of US$993 per hectare.

 

The annual average cost of feeds per hectare was US$511, regardless of farm category. Intensive farms incurred the highest feed cost at US$1,110, which is 56.2 percent of the total production cost.

 

Semi-intensive and traditional farms had lower annual average feed costs per hectare at US$282 and US$140, respectively.

For all farms, the average gross revenue per hectare in a year was US$2,831. Intensive farms reported the highest average annual gross revenue at US$5,252 followed by semi-intensive farms at US$1,994. Traditional farms had the least at US$1,247.

 

The high gross income figure among intensive farms was because of the high volume of harvested milkfish (3,012 kilogrammes) and prawn (340 kilogrammes).

 

The average annual milkfish and prawn production per hectare for semi-intensive farms were lower at 882 kilogrammes and 152 kilogrammes, correspondingly. Traditional farms produced the least milkfish (578 kilogrammes) and prawn (87 kilogrammes).

 

The average annual gross aquaculture margin per hectare was highest for intensive fish farm operators (US$3,422) compared with those of semi-intensive farms (US$1,072). A very low margin of US$238 was computed among traditional farms.

 

The estimated break-even prices among intensive farms were 82 percent and 143 percent lower than the prevailing market prices of milkfish and prawn.

 

In the case of semi-intensive farms, the estimated break-even prices for milkfish (US$0.72 per kilogramme) and prawn (US$2.38 per kilogramme) were also lower than the prevailing respective market prices of US$0.94 per kilogramme and US$7.57 per kilogramme.

 

Traditional farms performed below in terms of break-even price for milkfish but have performed well as far as prawn production is concerned.

 

Intensive farms have exceeded their break-even productivity levels by 80 percent and 450 percent for milkfish and prawn, correspondingly. The actual level of milkfish production per hectare among traditional farms was 22 percent below the break-even production level while their average prawn production level at 87 kg was 27 percent above its estimated break-even production.

 

This implies that as commercial feeding intensifies, the higher yields support their use. Both intensive and semi-intensive farms were able to register yields that exceeded the break-even point while traditional farms, due to their non-adoption of commercial feeding practices, were slightly below their break-even level of harvest for milkfish production.

 

For the complete report, please click here.