Industry Strategic Science and Technology Plans (ISPs) Platform

Aquafeeds Industry Profile

Aquafeeds are feeds for any aquatic organisms as part of aquaculture. They can be in the form of pellet, mash, or crumble feeds. Pellet feeds are in agglomerated form, produced through use of heat, moisture and pressure, or through extrusions. While crumble feeds are in granular form, and mash feeds are in meal form. Aquafeeds are required to be nutritionally adequate because they are used in culturing aquatic organisms such as crustaceans, fish and mollusks.

The protein, lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals levels of aquafeeds should meet the nutrient requirements for each intended species. Likewise, the raw materials for aquafeeds need to be good sources of the required nutrients and should have less polluting effect on the environment. Microalgae, seaweeds and seaweed by-products are now being used for aquafeed formulations.

Problems in the Industry

The problems faced by the Philippine aquafeeds industry include low algal paste yield, and the high cost of fish meal and soybean-meal based protein source for aquafeed which increases the cost of aquafeeds. There is also a need for feeds for new and genetically-improved cultured species and improvement in technologies to improve the quality of aquafeeds and production efficiency.

ISP for Aquafeeds

The PCAARRD Industry Strategic S&T Program (ISP) for aquafeeds aims to decrease aquaculture feed cost; produce an exportable microalgal paste; produce fish feed made up of 70% local materials; and produce 1 ton/month of feed using locally-available ingredients.

Strategic R&D

Strategic R&D is DOST-PCAARRDā€™s banner program comprising all R&D activities that are intended to
generate outputs geared towards maximum economic and social benefits

Technologies

Products, equipment, and protocols or process innovations developed to improve productivity, efficiency,
quality, and profitability in the agriculture and aquatic industries, and to achieve sustainable
utilization and management of natural resources

Cost-Competitive Aquafeed from Lablab

DLSU developed a hardware and a system for harvesting and drying lab-lab to make it available for use year-round. The researchers developed the lab-lab biomass as a cost-competitive feedstock for...

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Protein enriched copra meal (PECM)

Copra cake, a by-product of the coconut oil industry of the Philippines was subjected to a solid state fermentation process using technology developed by Biotech of UP Los BaƱos in...

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Microalgae Paste

The University of the Philippines Visayas developed a microalgae paste as an alternative source of larval feed especially when rations of live microalgae are insufficient. Microalgae paste was utilized for...

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Capacity Building

Capacity building efforts of DOST-PCAARRD seek to develop and enhance the R&D capabilities of researchers
and academic or research institutions through graduate assistantships & non-degree trainings
and development and/or upgrading of research facilities

Infrastructure Development

Manpower Development