AGRO ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILL

Fish  Farming  Technology

Fish farming is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. Fish farming involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases juvenile fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species' natural numbers is generally referred to as a fish hatchery. Worldwide, the most important fish species used in fish farming are carp, salmon, tilapia and catfish.

There is an increasing demand for fish and fish protein, which has resulted in widespread over fishing in wild fisheries. Fish farming offers fish marketers another source. However, farming carnivorous fish, such as salmon, does not always reduce pressure on wild fisheries, since carnivorous farmed fish are usually fed fishmeal and fish oil extracted from wild forage fish. 

Fish feed making

Catfish feeds have generally been based on a fixed formula with little use of a least-cost approach as is used in other animal industries. To use a least-cost computer program to formulate feeds, manufacturers must know the cost of feed ingredients, the nutrient concentrations in feedstuffs, nutrient requirements and nutrient availability from feedstuffs, and nutritional and nonnutritional restrictions. 

Use of least-cost feed formulation is limited because we don’t know much about the nutrient levels that bring maximum profit in relation to levels that result in best weight gain, we can’t store large number of different ingredients at the feed mills, and getting a wide assortment of feedstuffs on a timely basis is a problem. But we can use a simple application of least-cost feed formulation used to formulate catfish feeds. Here are some examples of restrictions placed on nutrients and feed ingredients for least-cost formulation of catfish feeds.

Poultry Management

Management of egg producing hens

The housing and management of layer hens can be carried out using one of two methods, caged layer production or floor production. Use of either method can keep the hens in production throughout the year if proper environmental and nutritional needs are met.

The poultry house should be located away from other farm structures. The ground should allow good water drainage. Adequate light fixtures are needed to provide proper light intensity. Adequate light is present if the water and feed levels in the troughs can be seen after allowing enough time for your eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. Fresh, clean water should be available at all times.

The house should allow for plenty of ventilation and sunlight. Place 1 inch, poultry wire netting over all openings to separate the hens from other birds and animals, both wild and domestic. Removable curtains or doors are recommended so the openings can be opened or closed as the weather changes. Keep the house dry and comfortable by ventilating from all sides in the summer and closing most openings in winter.

The caged layer production method consists of placing the hens in wire cages with feed and water being provided to each cage. The birds are housed at a capacity of two to three hens in each cage, which measures approximately 12"x16"18". The cages are arranged in rows which are placed on leg supports or suspended from the ceiling so the floors of the cages are about 2 to 3 feet above the ground. Water is supplied by individual cup waterers or a long trough outside the cages that extends the length of the row of cages. The feed trough is also located outside the cages and runs parallel to the water trough on the opposite side of each cage. The cages are designed so the eggs will roll out of the cage to a holding area by means of a slanted wire floor. This method of housing is used primarily with egg-type layers kept for infertile egg production.

Poultry Feed Making Technology

Poultry feed is food for farm poultry, including chickens, ducks, geese and other domestic birds. Feed for poultry mostly consists of grain. A portion of commercial feed, typically around a quarter, is known as bulk and is indigestible. The amount of bulk is referred to as bulk density.  The quantity of feed, and the nutritional requirements of the feed, depend on the weight and the age of the poultry as well as the season. Healthy poultry require a sufficient amount of protein and carbohydrates, along with the necessary vitamins, dietary minerals, and an adequate supply of water. Certain diets also require the use of grit, tiny rocks such as pieces of granite, in the feed. Grit aids in digestion by grinding food as it passes through the gizzard. Grit is not needed if commercial feed is used.

The feed must remain clean and dry;  contaminated feed can infect poultry. Damp feed encourages fungal growth. Mycotoxin poisoning, as an example, is "one of the most common and certainly most under-reported causes of toxicoses in poultry".  Diseases can be avoided with proper maintenance of the feed and feeder. A feeder is the device that supplies the feed to the poultry.  For privately raised chickens, or chickens as pets, feed can be delivered through jar, trough or tube feeders. The use of poultry feed can also be supplemented with food found through foraging. In industrial agriculture, machinery is used to automate the feeding process, reducing the cost and increasing the scale of farming. For commercial poultry farming, feed serves as the largest cost of the operation.

Snail Rearing Technology

Snail is a common name that is applied most often to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name "snail" is also applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have a coiled shell that is large enough for the animal to retract completely into. When the word "snail" is used in this most general sense, it includes not just land snails but also thousands of species of sea snails and freshwater snails. 

Occasionally a few other molluscs that are not actually gastropods, such as the Monoplacophora, which superficially resemble small limpets, may also informally be referred to as "snails".

Snail-like animals that naturally lack a shell, or have only an internal shell, are usually called slugs, and land snails that have only a very small shell (that they cannot retract into) are often called semislugs.

Irrigation Farming Technology

Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. Additionally, irrigation also has a few other uses in crop production, which include protecting plants against frost,  suppressing weed growth in grain fields  and preventing soil consolidation.  In contrast, agriculture that relies only on direct rainfall is referred to as rain-fed or dryland farming.

Irrigation systems are also used for dust suppression, disposal of sewage, and in mining. Irrigation is often studied together with drainage, which is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given area.

Organic Fertilizer Production 

Organic fertilizers are fertilizers derived from animal matter or vegetable matter. (e.g. compost, manure). In contrast, the majority of fertilizers are extracted from minerals (e.g., phosphate rock) or produced industrially (e.g., ammonia). Naturally occurring organic matter|organic fertilizers include animal wastes from meat processing, peat, manure, slurry, and guano.

Seed and Seedling

Once the seedling starts to photosynthesize, it is no longer dependent on the seed's energy reserves. The apical meristems start growing and give rise to the root and shoot. The first "true" leaves expand and can often be distinguished from the round cotyledons through their species-dependent distinct shapes. While the plant is growing and developing additional leaves, the cotyledons eventually senesce and fall off. Seedling growth is also affected by mechanical stimulation, such as by wind or other forms of physical contact, through a process called thigmomorphogenesis.

Vegetable  Oil Processing

A vegetable oil is a triglyceride extracted from a plant. Such oils have been part of human culture for millennia. The term "vegetable oil" can be narrowly defined as referring only to plant oils that are liquid at room temperature,  or broadly defined without regard to a substance's state of matterat a given temperature.  For this reason, vegetable oils that are solid at room temperature are sometimes called vegetable fats. Vegetable oils are composed of triglycerides, as contrasted with waxes which lack glycerin in their structure. Although many plant parts may yield oil,  in commercial practice, oil is extracted primarily from seeds.

Corn Meal Processing

The maize milling process starts with cleaning the grain and is usually followed by conditioning the maize (dampening the maize with water and then allowing it to condition for some time in a bin)