[conteúdo apenas disponível em inglês]
Freshwater fish farming in Cabo Delgado emerged in the 2000s, with the development of tilapia fish production. However, this activity has never been sustainable due to the lack of: quality juveniles, technology transfer, adequate feed, and technical capacity to transfer technology. The inexistence of fish feed factories in several geographic locations implicate fish feed importation and storage, aggravating production costs, and therefore economical sustainability of this activity. Community based aquaculture can assume a fundamental role in the production of food in undeveloped countries, especially in villages far from large urban centers, where the production of animal protein for human consumption is scarce, leading to the emergence of nutrition problems that affect mainly growing children. Fish production obtained in extensive regime, without regular feed supply, is low and unsatisfactory, attending to the labor and investment devoted by the communities. The development of manufactured fish feed, for use in community tilapia aquaculture, may represent a giant step in the development of this activity. In addition, if improvements are made in the breeding process, as well as in the training of human resources, we can contribute substantially to the sustainable development of this activity in African countries, specifically in Mozambique. The present proposal aim to develop manufactured diets for tilapia nutrition in community based aquaculture in Mozambique. The project is divided in 7 tasks: 1) Identification of raw ingredients with potential for fish feeds; 2) Nutritional and biochemical characterization of selected local ingredients for fish feeds; 3) Broodstock selection and juvenile production; 4) Development of feed formulae for handmade feeds; 5) Experimental community based tilapia aquaculture testing developed feed formulae; 6) transference of technology; and 7) Disseminations of results. The project will be developed in the village of Magogo, located about 19 km from the headquarters of the Ngapa Administrative Post, where despite agriculture being the predominant activity, there are some tanks for the production of endemic Mozambican tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus). The project team will be multidisciplinary and will involve Portuguese and Mozambican scientists and technicians from the University of Aveiro, Lurio University and the Provincial Directorate of the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries (DPMAIP). We aim to contribute for the capacitation and formation of project partner human resources and young Mozambican scientists (1 PhD thesis, 6 Master thesis and 6 graduation thesis), to implement a pilot community based aquaculture, involving man and women in genera equality, which will be reproducible in other villages, contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of the inhabitants of villages far from the big urban centers, through their capacitation to produce their own food in a sustainable way.