Carp culture with farm made feed – A success story

Abstract

An 8 months feed demonstration programme was conducted in ponds of Ramakrishna Mission Belur Math, West Bengal, India. The demonstration programme was conducted to give on hand training to 30 trainees of 20 districts of West Bengal associated with Samaj Sevak Sikshan Mandir (SSSM) on farm made feed. Two ponds were selected of size 0.1 ha at Shilpamandira (Feed 1) and another of 0.08 ha at Samaj Sevak Sikshan Mandir (SSSM) (Feed 2) where catla and rohu were stocked @ 4,500/ha.The polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content of fish in final harvest ranged from 21.38 to 22.88 (%).The feed demonstration result indicated that estimated net production (t/ha/8 months) was 4.9 and 6.8, respectively, with til oilcake (Feed 1) and mustard oilcake (Feed 2) incorporated feeds, respectively. At the end of the demonstration programme the trainees developed self confidence and skill for taking up aquaculture as their future livelihood.