Napier grass, new cheap fish food for farmers

Napier grass is chopped before being mixed with rice husk and concentrated feed to produce a cheaper, alternative fish food. (Photos by Chinnaphat Chaimol)

CHIANG RAI – The fodder crop Napier grass is providing new opportunities for freshwater fish farmers, who say it is an easy to grow, low-cost alternative to commercial fish meal.

Farmers in several areas of the province have stopped using conventional fish food and turned to making their own feed using Napier grass (Pak Chong 1 variety) as the main raw material. This has cut feed bills by about 75%.

Chiang Rai Fisheries Provincial Office pioneered developing the new fish food, which consists of chopped high-protein Napier grass, rice husk and concentrated feed in the ratio of 6:4:1. The cost for farmers has plummeted from 26 baht to only 6 baht a kilogramme.

The province has a total of 14,097 fish raisers with a combined farming area of 15,092 rai. The majority of them (67%) raise tilapia and 15% catfish.

Amorn Phuthasamma, chief of the provincial office, said Napier grass can be directly layered in the pond along with cow manure, to provide a whole day's feeding.

Using the new grass feed also reduced the problem of polluted water, and the fish meat does not have the muddy odour often associated with farmed fish, he said. (continues below)

Napier grass-feed and cow manure are put in the pond to provide all-day feeding for the fish.

Chamroen Pandon, chairman of a group of fish farmers who switched to Napier grass, said the increasing cost of fish food meant many raisers had been operating at a loss.

Now, by growing their own Napier grass and mixing their own fish food, they could survive.

The grass is ready for harvest in 30-45 days, and the plants survive for as long as seven years.

Mr Chamroen, who is also chairman of the Yonok tambon administration organisation in Chiang Sean district, said the majority of the 4,900 population in the area raise tilapia, or Nil fish, but had been struggling to cover costs. Now they can stand on their own two feet.

Chadaporn On-kieow farms tilapia on 8 rai in tambon Yonok. She said it was costing her 6,000-10,000 baht a time for fish food. The cost had now fallen to about 1,350 baht because she grows her own grass and mixes her own feed. If her Napier grass is not ready for harvest, she can buy it at 1.50 baht a kilo.

Napier grass is also known as elephant grass and Ugandan or Sudan grass, It is a perennial tropical grass native to Africa.