Effect of Solid-state Fermentation on Proximate Composition of Rice Bran Meal

Fish farming is often faced with high feed cost comprising approximately 60 to75% of total production costs; these causes decrease in profit margin for the fish farmers. An attempt to upsurge the profit is to minimize the cost of feed as minimal as possible. One way to do this is to explore local feed ingredients that could be used as an alternatives for fish feed. Consequently, farmers use locally available fish feed ingredients including agricultural by-products. These feed ingredients have led to increased pond productivity due to their nutrients constituent and bio-availability. This study evaluate the effect of solid state fermentation on proximate compositions of fermented rice bran meal. Rice bran was collected in three different containers, ground into powder, then sieved and fermented using solid state fermentation procedure. Each sample was solidly fermented at 10% moisture and keep in fermenter at ambient temperature for 24 hours (1 day), 96 hours (4 days), and 168 hours (7 days). Afterward, the fermented samples were oven dried for one hour at 100oC. The fermented samples were taken to the laboratory for proximate analysis. The results obtained from the study shows that, fermenting rice bran for seven days (168hrs) increases the crude protein from 10.53±1.27 to 15.07±1.43 and reduction in crude fibre from 10.74±062 to 7.87±1.71. This study revealed that, solid state fermentation of rice bran meal for one to seven days improved the crude protein and reduces crude fibre and the fermented bran meal can be incorporated as an essential part of the fish feed.