Ritu Prem
PhD Student, Indian Insititute of Technology, Kharagpur, India
Title: Design and development of a novel fish feeding system for small and marginal farmers
Biography
Biography: Ritu Prem
Abstract
Intensification of aquaculture practices in order to increase the production at par with the increasing demand has led to higher use of supplementary feeds. Feed costs has a significant share of 60-70% of the total production costs, so feed must be judicially applied without any wastage. Both overfeeding and underfeeding are not preferred; overfeeding leads to feed wastage while underfeeding affects the production. So feeding devices which will effectively dispense the feed in the ponds are of great importance. Demand type feeders have been found better than automatic feeders when feed wastage is considered but the automatic feeders help in dispensing fixed amount of feed at preset timings. Since most of the farmers in underdeveloped and developing countries can’t afford systems using high-end technology, simple innovations are necessary to meet the needs of small and marginal farmers. This study aims to develop a novel feeding system which will simply mechanize the current method of feeding practiced by the farmers and optimize the amount of feed dispensed, thus reducing the feed wastage. The designed feeder is mobile so it can feed aquaculture ponds of any size. The prototype of the proposed design is under construction and will be rigorously tested in laboratory and field conditions.