A review on role of plant waste products on fish growth, health and production

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to summarize the current available knowledge of using plant by-products in fish culture, and their potential to be applied further in aquaculture production because, in recent years, the fish consumption increased and total world production of fish has decreased. Fish constitutes the fastest growing source of food in the developing world. The shift in some countries from extensive to semi-intensive and intensive farming of fish demands that nutritionally complete feeds be provided by the farmer. There is large number of feed additives available to improve fish growth performance but these are very costly. It is preferable that, in the case of commercial aquaculture, the production cost to be reduced. World Health Organization encourages using of medicinal herbs and plants to substitute or minimize the use of chemicals through the global trend to go back to the nature. Various studies have been done on non-conventional raw ingredients and these include host of plants and animals by-products such as sweet potato peels [1], banana peels [2], calabash seed [3], papaya seed [4].