Aquaculture and aquafeed in Rwanda: current status and perspectives

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of Rwanda showing its five provinces (Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, Kigali City), all of which were included in this survey of pond fish farming activities.

Table 1. General description of the survey respondents (N = 67) on fish farms in Rwanda.

Characteristics of respondent*	Category	% of total
Sex	Male	79.1
	Female	20.9
Age	16–30 years	10.4
	31–55 years	74.6
	>56 years	14.9
Education (level)	Primary school	23.4
	Secondary school	21.9
	Tertiary education**	54.7
Farming experience	2–4 years	12.3
	4–9 years	70.8
	>9 years	16.9
Farmer ownership	Co-operative	62.7
	Privately owned	26.9
	Other	10.4

*Respondent was farm owner and/or farm manager/representative **One-year college course to university.

Table 2. Total number of fish farms surveyed in Kigali City, Eastern, Southern, Western, and Northern province, Rwanda.

Province & districts	No. of fish farms surveyed	Province area* (km^2)	Total number of fish farms	% of total
Kigali City	9	730	28	14
Gasabo	7
Kicukiro	2
Eastern	14	9,813	41	20
Gatsibo	5
Kayonza	2
Nyagatare	2
Rwamagana	3
Bugesera	2
Southern	18	5,963	57	27
Gisagara	1
Huye	3
Kamonyi	4
Muhanga	2
Nyanza	2
Nyamagabe	3
Ruhango	3
Western	7	5,883	25	12
Karongi	3
Nyamasheke	1
Ngororero	2
Rusizi	1
Northern	19	3,276	60	28
Burera	2
Nyabihu	2
Gakenke	2
Gicumbi	4
Musanze	2
Rulindo	7

*Source: Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC), Provinces and Districts of Rwanda, 2011.

Table 3. Distribution of fish species cultured in different provinces of Rwanda (% of fish farms per province).

Species cultured	Farm location (province)
	Kigali City	Eastern	Southern	Western	Northern
Tilapia (%)	89	69	56	75	79
Tilapia and catfish (%)	11	23	33	25	11
Tilapia and carp (%)		8			5
Tilapia, catfish, and carp (%)			11		5

Table 4. Number, location and capacity of surveyed fish hatcheries in Rwanda.

Parameters	Province
	Kigali City	Western	Eastern	Northern	Southern
Number of hatcheries per province	1	2	3	2	3
Species produced	Nile tilapia	Nile tilapia	Nile tilapia	Nile tilapia	Africa catfish & Nile tilapia
Size of fingerlings (gram)	1– 2	1– 2	2– 5	2	2– 5
Minimum fingerlings (2 g) per hatchery per year*	160,000	320,000	480,000	320,000	480,000
Average price per fingerling (Rwandan francs)*	20–30	20–30	30–45	30	30– 50

*Production cycle at hatchery level is 3 months. **850 Rwanda francs =1 US Dollar.

Table 5. Tilapia stocking density applied in different provinces in Rwanda (% of farms per province).

Stocking density (fish m^−2)	Farm location (province)
	Kigali City	Eastern	Southern	Western	Northern
2	22	50	36	63	79
3	45	40	31	25	21
4	22	10	31	13
5	11

Table 6. Fish-feeding strategy applied in different provinces in Rwanda (% of farms per province).

Feed used	Province					Mean values of all regions
	Kigali City	Eastern	Southern	Western	Northern
Commercial	89	67	76	37	63	67
Home-made	11	33	0	13	16	14
Do not feed			24	50	21	19
Feeding rate (times day^−1)
1	23	45	17	60	46	38
2	64	36	83	40	54	55
3		19				4
4	13					3

Table 7. Feed ingredients used by fish farmers and local fish feed producers in all five provinces of Rwanda. The ingredients are presented in descending order based on abundance for each category.

		Province
No.	Ingredients	Kigali City	Northern	Southern	Eastern	Western
	Plant-origin feed ingredients
1	Rice bran	*	*	*	*	*
2	Maize bran	*	*	*	*	*
3	Soybean meal	*		*	*	*
4	Broken maize	*		*
5	Rice polishes	*	*		*	*
6	Wheat bran	*	*			*
7	Wheat middlings	*	*			*
8	Sweet potato leaf meal		*		*	*
9	Sunflower cake	*		*	*
10	Cotton seed cake	*	*	*	*
11	Soybean crude oil	*			*	*
12	Brewer’s grain (or by-products)	*	*			*
13	Kidney bean leaf meal		*			*
14	Sweet potato root meal				*	*
15	Sugar cane molasses	*	*			*
16	Ripe banana and peels	*
17	Coffee cherry husks, pulps					*
18	Groundnut (or peanut) cake			*
19	Sunflower oil			*
	Animal-origin feed ingredients
1	Bone meal (cattle)	*	*	*	*	*
2	Blood meal (cattle)	*	*	*	*	*
3	Sea shells	*		*	*	*
4	Fish meal, Haplochromis spp.		*		*	*
5	Fish meal, Stolothrissa tanganicae	*		*		*
6	Fish meal, Rastrineobola argentea	*	*		*
7	Slaughter waste		*		*
8	Freshwater shrimp meal	*	*
9	Poultry by-product meal			*
10	Tilapia fish by-products	*				*
11	Snail shells					*
12	Fish oil	*			*

Table 8. Proximate composition and energy content of local feed ingredients (g kg⁻¹ DM).

Ingredient	DM	CP	EE	CF	Ash	NFE
Fish meal (Rastrineobola argentea)	861	548	170	123	17	141
Fish meal (Stolothrissa tanganicae)	908	614	150	118	12	107
Fish meal (Haplochromis spp.)	875	586	110	145	21	138
Chicken/poultry viscera	911	348	143	13	61	435
Blood (Bos taurus) meal	914	701	16	12	71	199
Spent brewer’s yeast	920	380	73	21	1	516
Soybean meal	897	382	115	175	82	245
Sunflower oil cake	916	273	73	158	54	441
Groundnut cake	907	397	268	83	48	204
Cotton seed meal	904	371	115	169	62	283
Spent brewer’s grain	917	235	163	130	76	395
Rice bran	903	126	71	159	235	408
Rice middlings	889	116	152	64	73	595
Maize middlings	896	127	165	121	96	491
Wheat bran	896	144	43	133	69	610
Wheat middlings	878	178	59	84	67	614
Broken maize	886	70	45	99	102	684
Sweet potato leaves	925	318	40	130	145	366
Kidney bean leaves	909	67	35	116	164	618
Sugar cane molasses	821	250			58	708

CP = crude protein, CF = crude fiber, EE = ether extract (lipid content), NFE = nitrogen-free extract (%, = 100 – CP).