Centre urged to open cottonseed testing facilities

Fish farmers, scientists, manufacturers and traders have appealed to the Union government to open testing facilities at the regional and local levels, if necessary with private participation, to monitor quality parameters of cottonseed extraction, manufactured in the country.

At a seminar on 'Use of Cottonseed Extraction as Fish Feed', they also asked the manufacturers to mention percentages of nutrients and anti-nutrients on the labels of their cottonseed meal supplies.

The seminar, first of its kind in the state, was organised by the All India Cottonseed Crushers' Association (AICCA) in collaboration with the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai, and the Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad.

Kamal Kant Jain, CIFE principal scientist, chaired the seminar. Farmers' leaders M V S Nagireddy and V Ramachandra Raju, and leaders of crushers and traders Yewalkar, AICCA secretary, and P Veeranarayana, AICCA honorary secretary, also participated in the debate.

The crushers and traders' representatives said the seminar was organised to create awareness among fish farmers about the nutritive potentiality of cottonseed extraction.

India is the third largest producer of cottonseed, after the US and China. The country produced 55.3 lakh tonnes of cottonseed during 2003-04.

Though cottonseed up to 44.3 lakh tonne is available for processing, only 0.71 lakh tonne of cottonseed has gone for actual processing which will make 22.15 lakh tonne seed a colossal waste.

Decorticated cottonseed contains 39 per cent of crude protein, one per cent of ether extract, 14.8 per cent of crude fibre, 33.15 per cent of digestible proteins, 8.07 per cent of ash, 0.49 per cent of calcium, 1.2 per cent of phosphorous.

They said that as patrons for cottonseed were only a few in number, its byproducts such as cottonseed oil, used in the treatment of heart patients, cottonseed linters and hulls, worth Rs 2,000 crore were going waste in the country every year.

They blamed traditional processing, which gives cottonseed cake (not extraction), for all the negative points.

"About 90 per cent of the cottonseeds processed through traditional methods in which seeds are simply crushed for oil without delinting and dehulling. This gives rise to cottonseed cakes. This cake contains nutrients in low quantities and toxins at high levels. But cottonseed extraction is obtained though scientific processing by cleaning, delinting, dehulling, purification of meat, flaking cooking and extraction of oil. This is an ideal method followed by the developed countries. While UD cake contains 22 per cent proteins, extraction is rich with 40-42 per cent proteins," they said.

Scientists said fish farmers in the US and other western countries used only cottonseed meal as feed.

Adding a word of caution, they said, "The cottonseed extraction should be in detoxified form without anti-nutrients. It is mandatory that the cottonseed should be first processed to reduce toxins like gossipol and cyclopropenoid present in it to the specified levels of 0.04 per cent and 0.017 respectively by treating the seed with calcium hydroxide steam, hexane and ferrous sulphate."

The high levels of fibre should be reduced from 20-24 per cent. Lysine should also be added. The toxins will hamper the growth of fish and damages fish liver, kidneys, intestine and gills. The residue of these substances will accumulate in fish fat. Care should also be taken to see that the meal is not be infected with fungus, they said.

They suggested that proper reseach, study and analysis should be done at the local level before making cottonseed extraction available on a commercial and large scale.

Field trials should be conducted at the local level with local fish species like rohu (silavati) and katla (boteche). The latest technology to reduce gossipol and cyclopropenoid to the barest minimum level is expensive, which will escalate cottonseed extraction price.

Over 60 per cent of the fish farmers in coastal Andhra have been using cottonseed meal as fish feed for the last 20 years.

They pointed out that as compared with 42-44 per cent of protein in the meal as claimed by the crushers, their tests revealed that only 32-34 per cent of protein was present in the supplies. Ricebrawn cake was the cheapest and available at Rs 18-20 per kg.

Groundnut cake was sold at Rs 26 per kg, sunflower cake at Rs 23 per kg. "If the cottonseed meal is supplied to us at competitive rates, we will not mind giving it first preference."

They lamented that at a time when their margins have shrunk from Rs 40,000 to Rs 10,000 per acre, the cottonseed extraction supplied to them this year was bad. Fungus was also found rampant in the feed, they said.