Malunggay or Moringa, Munggo Beans, Peanuts and Cassava Starch, all available locally, will soon become components of a locally produced and formulated Aqua Feeds which could be sold at lower prices to support small fishcage and fishpond farmers in the country.
Rocky French, the Filipino-American farmer-scientist who came home to help me with the Aqua Feeds Production Project which is part of my advocacy to achieve Food Sufficiency in the Philippines, said the dependence on expensive imported raw materials for feed formulation has driven up the production cost of farmed fish.
“The beauty of this is we will be creating new income opportunities for our farmers, including rice farmers in non-irrigated areas who could plant Munggo Beans or Peanuts as their off-season crops,” French told me yesterday during the first production run of the mill located in Kidapawan City.
The newly-constructed feed mill is actually owned by a farmers’ group, the Cotabato Livestock Producers Association (COLIPA) which received in 2018 a P10-M grant from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), along with several other groups in other provinces in the country, to boost local feed production.
The lack of technical expertise delayed the operation of the mill and this was when I convinced COLIPA to allow Rocky French’s group to enter into a tolling arrangement for the production of Aqua, Hog and Poultry Feeds.
Yesterday, the first locally formulated Aqua Feeds came out of the mill marking the start of the production of an initial volume.
Rocky said that yesterday’s initial pelletized feeds needed additional moisture to avoid breakage which he attributed to a very low moisture of 9% instead of the ideal 10% to 11% MC.
Once the adjustments are made, the “Taste Enhancer” Aqua Feeds would be used in an actual feeding test for two weeks in the small Hito Farm of my brother, M’lang Vice Mayor Joselito Piñol.
While the first batch of the Aqua Feeds does not yet contain Malunggay Leaves, Munggo Beans and Peanuts, locally produced Cassava Starch was used as binder.
French said the “Feeding Test” will involve two criteria: improvement of the taste of the Hito and the increasing fats.
After two weeks, assuming that the “Feeding Test” will achieve the targets, the commercial production of the “Taste Enhancer” Aqua Feeds will commence.
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