Professor of IPB: Rubber Seeds Meal Can Substitute Soybean Meal as Fish Feeds
Professor of Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science Bogor Agricultural University (FPIK-IPB), Prof. Dr. Muhammad Agus Suprayudi in Pre Scientific Oration Press Conference at IPB Baranang Siang Campus (19/7) explained his innovation, analog soybean meal with rubber seeds meal-based. He thinks that rubber seeds meal can substitutes soybean meal as fish feed main ingredient. Rubber seeds meal is able to substitute soybean meal function without causing negative effect up to level of 50%. Not only rubber seeds meal, rubber seeds oil also can be used as source of fat and essential fatty acids.
“Aquaculture development is increased up to 200 percent per year. Global fish production from aquaculture is 44.1 percent. America, Europe, Africa were less than 5 percent while Asia reached13.3 percent. So I get to say that the center of aquaculture is in Asia. Indonesia itself was the second after China,” he conveyed.
He explained, in aquaculture fishery, some of them need feeds and others do not. Feed cost of the total production costs is the highest from other production costs. Feed cost of freshwater fish aquaculture is the highest. Feed cost for 1 kilogram fish is influenced by two factors, those are the feed price and feed efficiency. “Therefore, we have to re-evaluate the nutrients and to lower the feed price. Nutrients re-evaluation can be conducted by adding essential amino acids and providing accordance energy protein ratio. This technique will be able to increase protein efficiency by 13 to 38.7 percents,” he said.
According to him, in 2015 the projected fish consumption will be increased by 66 percents to 339.5 ton. It will require much more feed raw material. Now, Indonesia is already overwhelmed to fulfill feed raw material. Now 1.63 million tons fish feed is required and in 2050, it is expected to be required 4-5 million ton.
“Currently, only 20 percent of feed raw material has been produced locally, such as bran, palm kernel meal, cassava (its derivatives), and copra. Others are imported. Now, the price of soybean has been drastically increased to 7.300 rupiah per kilogram. We had researched a various raw materials. It turns out there is one raw material that has exceptional potency, that is rubber seeds whose productivity is 4.1 million tons per year. Rubber seeds has been only used 1 million ton, while the rest is has not been used. Essential amino acids and A/E ratio of rubber seeds is nearly equal to soybean meal,” he explained. It is mentioned, rubber seeds oil is also better than palm oil, corn oil, soybean oil and salmon oil. Its linoleate content reached 40.1 and linolenate content reached 17.6.
“However rubber seeds also contain cyanide. If its cyanide content is not removed, it will cause kidney damage to the fish. In our research, if rubber seeds oil is heated, its cyanide content will be decreased 90 percent. Test on fish with treated rubber seeds-based feed showed that this feed can substitute soybean meal 50-60 percent. Rubber seeds oil also can be used as the source of fat and essential fatty acids for tilapia fish,” he added.
“Surely there are obstacles in developing this rubber seeds-based feed, those are collecting rubber seeds (seasonal) only can be done once a year so the supply has not assured yet. The solution is the collaboration with government on how rubber seeds production can be 2-3 times a year,” he explicated. In his opinion, if his innovation can be developed, rubber farmers welfare also will be improved and soybean meal import can be suppressed then it will save foreign exchange,” he stated. (qa)
