Dr. M A Kabir Chowdhury, Global Product Manager - Aquaculture, Jefo
Nutrition Inc.
The global fed aquaculture has been growing at a much
faster rate than any other industry for the better part of the last three
decades. In recent years, there are signs of sluggishness mainly because of
lower than expected growth in China. Too many species, lack of better genetics
and limited information on nutritional requirements of most of these species at
various life stages has been a major bottleneck for the industry worldwide. In
addition, increasing price of common feed ingredients, lack of quality feed
stuffs, poor characterization of their nutrient profiles, poor understandings
of anti-nutrients, lack of industry wide standard, poor labeling, and
resistance to change or to accept innovative ideas, technologies and products
are also some of the major contributing factors. The aqua feed industry could
play a major role to reverse the trend in partnerships with the farming
community and public institutions. The industry needs to invest significantly
to improve the knowledge base on nutritional requirements, ingredient
characterization and screening, and to educate the farming community. At the
same time, local, regional or national governments should engage themselves in
formulating, incorporating, implementing and enforcing policies on proper
labeling, labour practices, environmental management, raw material standards,
use of antibiotics and other chemicals, and other important issues.
To combat the continuing crises of quality raw
materials, maintaining optimum environment and health, and for better production,
plethora of products are available and new products are being developed almost
every day in an already crowded marketplace. Similar to selecting a raw
material, a due diligence needs to be given in screening these products. Most
additives available for the industry today were originally developed for other
terrestrial animals. From feed manufacturers’ and farmers’ perspectives,
choosing a product should depend on species, farming conditions, and finally,
the manufacturing parameters. This presentation discusses types of solutions
currently available for various challenges being faced by feed manufacturers
and farmers including some suggestions for a profitable and sustainable
industry.
With
broad knowledge and more than 20 years of field experience in aquaculture production management and
nutrition, Kabir Chowdhury's academic
and research excellence are reflected in
numerous scientific communications published in various outlets. He received his PhD in Animal Nutrition from
the UG/OMNR Fish Nutrition Research Laboratory (FNRL) of the University of
Guelph, Ontario, Canada and MSc from the Asian Institute of Technology of
Thailand.
At
his current position with Jefo Nutrition Inc., an animal feed additive company
from Canada, he manages the worldwide aquaculture program for the organization.
