Let us start with understanding what BFT really means – Biofloc fish farming leverages the BFT or Biofloc Technology so as to farm fish in tanks in a carefully controlled atmosphere. Given that the fish-tank and the general ecosystem is monitored enhances the yield quality and quantity, ultimately increasing profitability and sustainability of the fish farming business.
To put things in perspective, a 2 m3 tank can hold up to 3000 fish, which is a superb cost to benefit metric, making BFT fish farming a favourite among new agripreneurs and fish farmers – and that is not even the main feature of the BFT technology!
Agricultural entrepreneurs and new-age start-ups are exploring the aquaculture business through biofloc fish-farming technology or BFT because of the cyclical sustainability model that BFT works on – in this model, the waste that is excreted by the fish gets transformed into nutrients and minerals through BFT, and the fish thrive in the nutrient-rich culture which is kept fresh and healthy with little manual intervention.
This means a couple of things – less money and effort required to keep the culture water clean, and less money required towards procuring protein-rich feed, which otherwise happens to be the biggest cost centre for an aquaculture farm.
Let us look at these advantages one by one:
Conversion of unutilized feed and excreta into protein-rich feed
Many fish farmers end up over-feeding the fish in hopes of getting a better-quality yield, that is plumper and meatier and would thus command a better price in the market. However, that is not how things work. Consequently, a lot of feed goes unabsorbed and ends up contaminating the culture water.
This unutilized feed that gets deposited on the bottom and then contaminates the culture water. Similarly, the feed that actually ends up getting consumed gets excreted by the fish – as much as up to 70% of the consumed feed ends up in the excreta!
The unutilized feed and the excreta together pollute the culture water, in systems that do not cater to this fallback. BFT on the other hand is tailor-made to deal with this crisis. It converts these contaminants into high-protein feed and the same can then be fed to the fish again!
Conversion of toxic elements into feed
Did you know that these contaminants also house harmful, rather toxic materials such as Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates? Biofloc technology helps convert these harmful materials to useful nutrients and thus fortifies the culture water rather than toxifying it.
Low operational costs
While traditional fish farms come with huge operational costs and much bigger one-time set-up costs owing to the cost of vast lands, high-protein feed costs, costs associated with the disposal and discharge of waste sludge and other such thing, the BFT method blows all these concerns away with a single shot and helps you decrease your costs and increase your profits manifold.
How to learn Biofloc Fish-farming Technique?
You can consider learning BFT at a Biofloc fish farm near you, by raising an enquiry as to whether they teach the method at the fish farm. Learning on-field can be the most effective and enriching experience, with real-time feedback and query resolution.
However, we understand that this pedagogical approach may not suit people who work elsewhere full-time or who simply do not have access to such a fish farm in close to where they live. As the next best alternative, we recommend courses that you can take up remotely as long as you have an internet connection and a device to learn (a smartphone or a computer).
We at Rocket Skills, a Gurgaon (Delhi-NCR) based edu-tech platform, are focussed on upskilling Indians who wish to start their own profitable venture in the MSME space and through our agriculture business focussed courses, we strive to make commercial agriculture more accessible to people who have absolutely no background in farming, animal husbandry and allied industries.
Besides courses in the mushroom farming business, organic farming business, bee-keeping and dairy farming space, our course on Biofloc Fish-farming Technology has been one of our best sellers since inception.
All our courses are similar in terms of pedagogy, with videos-on-demand (wherein you get most of the content in the form of pre-recorded lectures which you can go through as and when your schedule allows) which you get to keep forever, Live Webinars with the instructors (wherein our learned experts cover specific, dynamic topics which change with the market and trends), Question and Answer sessions with the instructors regularly over video conferencing, and a learning mobile app, which connects everything together so that your experience as a learner is well integrated and smooth!
All our courses have special emphasis upon the practicality and real-world suitability, and we make sure that we talk about things that would help a real agripreneur – including subsidies and how to avail the same, or even the general market backdrop and trade potential in different parts of the country and the world.
For instance, the most suitable fish and crustacean varieties that are farmed across BFT farms in India are shrimps and tilapia. Did you know why? Because of their incredible feed-to-food conversion ratio, quick gestation cycle and favourable market forces.
However, since Tilapia is an invasive variety, it may not be suitable for fish farmers who wish to practice mixed fish culture, even though there are ways to work around it that are guided by your infrastructural capacity and budget.
This is an extremely subjective question which would be answered differently for different students, and for such questions, we have a special feature in our courses – students get ample opportunity to connect with experts and ask them questions which may be very specific to their location, geography, farm or even their budget.
To learn more about these courses, you can attend one of our webinars and if you’re keen on getting straight to business, consider joining our course and start your own Biofloc Fish Farm today!
