AQUACULTURE
Since seventy percent of the world’s surface is covered in water, humans have realized its importance as a resource. For this reason, one of the areas heavily exploited regarding the use of water as a resource is aquaculture, especially in the production of food as opposed to using the terrestrial land.
Aquaculture is the process of rearing, breeding and harvesting of aquatic species, both animals and plants, in controlled aquatic environments like the oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds and streams. It serves different purposes, including food production, restoration of threatened and endangered species populations, wild stock population enhancement, the building of aquariums, and fish cultures and habitat restoration
Fish Farming
Fish farming is the most common type of aquaculture. It involves the selective breeding of fish, either in freshwater or seawater, with the purpose of producing a food source for consumption. Fish farming is highly exploited as it allows for the production of a cheap source of protein.
Furthermore, fish farming is easier to do than other kinds of farming as fish are not care-intensive, but only requiring food and proper water conditions as well as temperatures. The process is also less land-intensive as the size of ponds required to grow some fish species such as tilapia is much smaller than the space required to grow the same amount of protein from beef cattle. Catfish provide two long, boneless fillets which can be prepared for the table in many ways, besides their very mild fishy flavor supports use in products not normally associated with fish.
Tilapia has the other advantage of being relatively tolerant to low oxygen and can survive in static ponds as compared to trout which require a lot of oxygen and will therefore do well in flowing waters thus requiring the presence of streams or lakes as water sources. For this reason tilapia and catfish are common on small scale ponds.
Ponds should be fertile to support the growth of pond organisms which fish feed on. This is normally done by applying agricultural lime and organic manure into the pond. Organic manure can be got from rabbit, poultry, goat, sheep, cattle or donkey manure.
Fish ponds can be continually fertilized by integrating fish farming with other enterprises on the farm; so that the byproducts or wastes are used as fish feed. For example you can build your poultry or rabbit house on top of a fishpond. When you are feeding the rabbits and poultry; feed that spills or the droppings will be consumed by the fish as they also fertilize the pond. This will reduce your operating costs by using the same labor force to do many tasks and will subsequently increase your Benefits of Fish Farming.
Fish farming in the country has had many advantages and that gives many people the reason to invest in it and make more profit in their life. It has been discovered that many farmers are setting up their own fish ponds in an effort to try and get ways of rearing fish.
The various advantages of fish farming are outlined below;
Source of proteins
Health experts have recommended that a good balanced diet should always comprise of proteins and other types of nutrients. One way in which one can acquire nutrients to the body is by eating fish that is also delicious if well prepared. The food is good for the body helping other people suffering from health problems to get a way of building their body by eating meals that have plenty supply of proteins to the body.
Industrial expansion
Fish farming has encouraged a lot of industrial growth in the country. Many companies have been constructed so that they can be of great help in providing fish at a large scale and even exporting it to other countries. That makes the market grow leaving people with a wide variety of options to choose from as to whether they will invest in the project or not.
Creation of employment
A lot of people have gained employment from the process of fish farming. It has been note that very few groups of people will want to be left jobless. By expanding the industry, many youths are finding better ways of earning form the projects by being employed as mangers or workers in the various companies that emerge.
Raw materials
Some fish products end up seeking the demand of other well established industries making it necessary for one to invest in the project. Companies pay huge amounts of money to obtain the raw materials giving way for the industry to be expanded at a faster rate.
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