Sustainable Fish Feed Development in Ghana

project summary

Aquaculture production in Ghana has quadrupled over the past ten years, mainly driven by the development of tilapia culture. Notwithstanding, cultured fish still constitutes less than 10% of national fish production. The sector has a huge potential for growth, especially small to medium scale operators whose productivity has remained very low. It is argued that lack of expansion is due to the high cost of formulated feeds on the Ghanaian market.

This project will build research capacity at KNUST towards state-of-the-art feed development based on locally available ingredients. The nutritional composition and quality of available potential local feed ingredients will be analysed and evaluated, and experimental feed formulations will be developed for testing in farm trials. The research group will include two PhD and three MSc students enrolled at KNUST but jointly supervised by our Danish partners. Knowledge will be transferred nationally through collaboration with farmers and at workshops including key stakeholders, and internationally through publications and conferences.

Utilizing the many potential local ingredients efficiently will not only strengthen the aquaculture sector in Ghana, but also contribute to conserve natural resources through alternative uses. Capacity building in fish feed formulation includes specific knowledge in other disciplines in research and nutritional aspects of agricultural feeds and consequently may strengthen interdisciplinary research within animal nutrition and animal feed formulation.