NUTRITIONAL VALUE AND NUTRIENT UTILIZATION OF PRESSURE COOKED PIGEON PEA Cajanus cajan FORMULATED DIET ON Clarias gariepinus (BURCHELL) FINGERLINGS

The need to substitute fishmeal in animal feed has necessitated the use of plant derived feedstuffs. However, problems of anti nutritional factors in tropical legumes have limited their widespread usage and direct incorporation into animal feeds. Different processing methods have been devised to remove or reduce the concentration of these factors.

Pigeon pea was subjected to pressure cooking using gas at 100ºc for 30mim, after which it was oven dried for 7 hours. A 40% crude protein diet was formulated with the dried Pigeon pea and fed to C. gariepinus fingerlings of 3.5g mean body weight to evaluate the nutritional value and nutrient utilization  on the growth and digestibility. This was aimed at determining how best pressure cooked method is in optimum utilisation of pigeon pea meal for fish production.

Fingerlings were fed twice daily at 4% body weight for 56 days to measure the following parameters weight gain (WTG), percentage weight gain (%WTG), specific growth rate (SGR), food conversion ratio (FCR), gross food conversion ratio (GFCR), protein intake (PI) and survivability.

The fish were weighed and reweighed weekly with feed fed adjusted accordingly and feacal matter collected. The feacal matter was dried in the sun at an ambient temperature and kept for proximate analysis.

The study revealed that pressure cooked pigeon pea seed could be a good protein source for fingerlings, and that it causes a reduction in the anti nutritional factors and can be incorporated into the diet. It should be used in addition with another source of protein, preferably animal protein to enhance better and faster growth of the fingerlings.  The prospect of better management practices, based on the utilization and value of Pigeon pea in fish nutrition, bodes well for the aquaculture industry.