Thirty fish farmers, governmental and nongovernmental community development personnel, corporate social responsibility practitioners, and students completed SEAMEO BIOTROP’s five-day National Training Course  on Utilization of Low-cost and Locally Available Materials for Good Quality Fish Feed Manufacturing  held in Bogor  on 18- 22 October 2012. 

In general,  the training course  was aimed at maximizing the use of available local materials and enhancing the entrepreneurial skills of the participants in manufacturing home-made low-cost fish feeds towards sustaining the growth of small scale aquaculture industry in Indonesia.  At the end of the training course, the participants were expected to have acquired the knowledge and skills to be able to: (a) select and formulate the appropriate mix of raw ingredients for processing a cost-effective and high quality fish feed; (b) design and maintain a low-cost, home-made fish feed manufacturing facility; and (c) package and market a low-cost home-made and high quality fish feeds.

Topics discussed during the training included the following:   Trends and Challenges in Small Scale Aquaculture Industry in Indonesia, Overview of home-made fish feed manufacturing, Site location and design of fish feed  manufacturing facilities, Selection of raw ingredients, Feed ingredients processing, Fish feed formulation and manufacturing, Packaging and labelling, Plant maintenance and repair, and Cost benefit analysis and  Marketing.

Aside from lecture-discussions, the training provided practicum to the participants at the Institute Pertanian Bogor Mini Feedmill, and  industry exposure through the visits to feed machinery manufacturing  plants such as  PT. Bahagia Jaya Sejahtera and PT. Cans  in Bogor and  TMII  in Jakarta.
   
The training course was coordinated by Dr. Nur Bambang P. Utomo, BIOTROP scientist.