Growth and Body Development of Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus, 1758) Fattened in Floating Cages Based on Commercial Feed in Benin

Armand Bienvenu Gbangboche Department of Science and Animal Production, Laboratory of Biotechnology and Animal Improvement, Biomedical Institute of Applied Science, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences – University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin College of Management and Exploitation of Livestock Systems –National University of Agriculture – 01 P.O. Box 43 Campus of Ketou – Republic of Benin. E-mail: gbangboche_ab@hotmail.com; Phone: +229 96 11 47 27


Introduction
There are about 80 species of tilapia, mostly from the African continent and, beyond the Suez Canal, from the region of Israel and Jordan among which, only some of the Oreochromis genus have the qualities required for aquaculture (Legros, 1995). The zootechnical characteristics of Oreochromis niloticus or tilapia (the ease with which they can breed, their relatively fast growth, their high tolerance to extreme rearing and harsh environmental conditions (high stocking density, low oxygen levels, etc.), resistance to handling, resistance to disease, good consumer acceptance) make this species, the most interesting and the basis of the freshwater fish farming in the intertropical belt of the globe (Legros, 1995;Arrignon, 1998;Lazard, 2007). According to its diet, Oreochromis niloticus can reach a market size of 400 g in 8 months (Lazard, 2007) and its commercial production generally requires the use of male monosex populations because they grow about 30% faster than females (Macintosh et al., 1985;Smith and Phelps, 2001;Ridha, 2011). In view of all the above, one of the possibilities for optimizing the production of Oreochromis niloticus or Nile tilapia could be its cage culture as it presents more advantages over other farming methods, such as culture ponds or raceways (Care, 2000;Gupta and Acosta, 2004). Cage culture is commonly used in water bodies that cannot be drained, such as lakes, estuaries, reservoirs or coastal marsh areas. Cage culture practices have numerous advantages over other culture systems. By integrating the cage culture system into the aquatic ecosystem the carrying capacity per unit area is optimized because the free flow of current brings in water and removes metabolic wastes, excess feed and faecal matter (Beveridge, 1984). In addition, cage-culturing requires low investment costs, easy management, easy and low cost of harvesting, opportunities for close observation of feeding and health status of fish (McGinty and Rakocy, 2005). Cages can be floating surface or standing surface cages, and the material by which they are constructed should be durable, lightweight, and cheap, such as a galvanized and plastic coated welded wire mesh, plastic netting and nylon mesh (Fitzsimmons, 2004). According to Beveridge (1996), cage aquaculture is an old practice. It dates back to early 10 th century when Chinese fishermen used to fatten fry in cage made with bamboo stick. Similar farming practices have been reported in both freshwater and marine environments, including open ocean, estuaries, lakes, reservoirs, ponds and river (Eng and Tech, 2002). However, the knowledge of the behavior of cultured species is crucial for the construction of an appropriate cage (McGinty and Rakocy, 2005). In the case of Oreochromis niloticus, it is less active and sometimes territorial in habitat, the shape of the cage does not affect its mobility, however, for easy assemblage and management rectangular cage is appropriate (Fitzisimmons, 2004). However, this farming practice is still embryonic in Benin, where national aquaculture production is still struggling to meet the ever-increasing demand. The present study aims to evaluate the growth performance and body development of Oreochromis niloticus, in floating cage based on imported commercial feed, with a view to translating the results into a diffusion technological package.

Study Area, Animal Descriptions, Study Design and Assessment of Growth and Body Development
The trial was conducted for a 215 days period (from September 27, 2015to May 18, 2016 at the Aquaculture Incubation Centre of Toho, a private fish farm located in Pahou in the municipality of Ouidah (6 ° 22' 00'' NORTH, 2 ° 05' 00'' EAST). A total of 6000 O. niloticus juvenile monosex male (Initial mean body weight IMBW: 8.87 ± 4.89 g; initial mean total length IMTL: 7.87 ± 1.43 cm) were collected from the Aquaculture Research and Incubation Center of Benin, weighed and stocked in two (02) square floating net cages (size of each cage: 5m x 5m x 2.5m) (Figure 1) in the Toho Lake at a stocking density of 3000 fish/cage. This stocking density used, i.e. 48 fish/m 3 , is close to the optimal value of 50 fish/m 3 recommended by Moniruzzaman et al. (2015).
The fish were hand-fed to apparent satiation, three times daily at 9.00am, 1.00pm and 5.00pm, using 45-32% crude protein commercial pelleted floating feed Skretting®. The fish progressively received 2 mm, 3 mm and 4.5 mm pellets from the beginning to the end of the trial. Water quality parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, ammonium, nitrite and nitrate were monitored at 72-hour intervals throughout the experimental period. Temperature and pH were recorded using a portable digital thermo-pH meter (pHep 3); test kits were used for the other parameters, namely Vunique V-Color 9750 for ammonium, Vunique V-Color 9780 for dissolved oxygen and API FRESHWATER MASTER TEST KIT for nitrite and nitrate.
Sampling was done at the end of the experimental period to access the growth performance and body development of the fish. Then, random samples of 1300 fish from each cage were caught.
The measurable morphometric characters of the fish as described by Stiassny et al. (2007), recorded at the beginning and the end of the trial were as follows: Total Body Length (TL), Standard Length (SL), Predorsal Length (PL), Head Length (HL), Dorsal Fin Base Length (DFBL), Interorbital Width (IOW), Body Height (BH) and Caudal Peduncle Height (CPH) (Figure 2). The Body Weight (BW) was also recorded during the trial. Weight was measured with a digital electronic scale (SH & A: SHS: SUPER HYBRID SENSOR; max range: 2200 g; accuracy: 0.01 g) for small and medium sized fish and another digital electronic scale (UWE; max capacity: 30 kg; accuracy: 5 g) to weigh large specimens. The morphometric parameters of the fish were measured using an ichtyometer (Total length: 1m; graduated in cm) for the large fish, and a Vernier caliper (graduated in cm) used for small specimens. To determine the growth response of the experimental fish, several parameters were calculated (Table 3) (Fermon, 2011) Journal of Biology and Life Science ISSN 2157-6076 2020 Legend: 1-Total length (TL), 2-Standard length (SL), 3-Body height (BH), 4-Head length (HL), Interorbital width (IOW), 5-Predorsal length (PL), 6-Dorsal fin base length (DFBL), 7-Caudal peduncle height (CPH).

Statistical Analysis
Data relating to growth and body development parameters (TL, SL, BH, HL, IOW, PL, DFBL, CPH and BW) and also physico-chemical parameters of the water (Temperature (°C); pH; O 2 (mg/l); NH 3 /NH 4 (mg/l); NO 2 (mg/l); NO 3 (mg/l)) were subjected to a descriptive statistical analysis, using Statistical Analysis System (SAS, 2008). The different rates such as SR, SGR, FCR, PER and the ADWG were calculated from the raw data.
Data on the total body length (TL) and body weight (BW) were recorded from each sampled fish. The parameters a and b of the length-weight relationship were estimated by logarithmic transformation of the equation BW = a x TL b , in which BW is the body weight (g); TL is the total body length (cm); a is the intercept; and b is the slope. Length-weight relationships were used to provide the condition of fish and determine whether growth is isometric (b = 3) or allometric (negative allometric: b < 3, or positive allometric: b >3). When b = 3, there is a good distribution in the body development of the fish (Pauly, 1983). However, b < 3 indicates a better growth in length than in weight, while b > 3 means a better growth in weight than in length (Micha, 1973;Ricker, 1973;Weatherley and Gill, 1987).  The mean values of morphometric parameters of fish (TL, SL, PL, HL, DFBL, IOW, BH, CPH) and body weight (BW) obtained at the end of the trial period are presented in Table2. The results revealed good adaptation and growth of Oreochromis niloticus in cages. ISSN 2157-6076 2020 Table 3 presents the zootechnical parameters of the fish. The results revealed good feed use, protein efficiency, specific growth rate and encouraging ADWG.

Physico-Chemical Parameters of Water
The water quality parameters monitored throughout this study meet the standards required for the breeding of the Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus such as: 22-29 °C for temperature (Sarig, 1969;Morgan, 1972;Caulton, 1982;Mires, 1995); 6.5-9 for pH (Hepher and Pruginin, 1981); dissolved oxygen content of the water > 3 mg/l (Ross, 2000); nitrite content < 0.3 mg/l (Boyd, 1998); 0.2 -10 mg/l for nitrate (Boyd, 1998). The importance of water quality in aquaculture was highlighted by some authors (Arulampalam et al., 1998;Thirupathaiah et al., 2012) and would justify a major role in the well-being of the fish, as evidenced by the analysis of the breeding water quality in this study.

Zootechnical Parameters
Generally, fish growth is dependent on several factors which, according to their nature, can be grouped as follows: farming environment, farming management and intrinsic factors related to the animal. Environmental factors include the availability of food resources in the environment and the physico-chemical quality of the species habitat (temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, luminosity, etc.) (Ezenwaji and Ikusemiju, 1981;De Merona et al., 1988;Panfili et al., 2002;Fontaine and Le Bail, 2004), the device or medium of breeding (Coche, 1978). For ISSN 2157-6076 2020 example, cage culture of tilapia species such as O. niloticus (Coche, 1978;Cavailles et al., 1981) and Sarotherodon melanotheron Rüppell 1852 (Ouattara et al., 2003) improves production and the rearing of mixed-sex populations without recruitment and stunting problems, which are important constraints in traditional culture systems. Concerning the factors related to fish farming management, they include: composition and quality of feeds (Moraes et al., 2009 ;Ashraf et al., 2011;Slawski et al., 2011), stocking density (Araujo et al., 2010), feeding methods (Ridha, 2011), feeding frequency (Yager and Summerfelt, 1993;Davies et al., 2006;Garcia and Villarroel, 2009), availability of food resources in ponds or cages, and feeding rate (Diana et al., 1991;Ng et al., 2000;Mihelakakis et al., 2002;Kestemont et al., 2003), fish rearing duration (Fermon, 2011;Silva et al., 2015). According to Shugunan (1997), higher stocking density reduces the growth and survival rates during fish culture. Increasing stocking density results in stress (Leatherland and Cho, 1985) which leads to enhanced energy requirements causing reduced growth and food utilization (Hengsawat et al., 1997). On the other hand, competition for food is a limiting factor for growth of young fish. Competition and aggressive behaviour increase under situations of food shortage (Symnons, 1971;Essa, 1996). Finally, the intrinsic factors related to the animal include: strain (Dey and Gupta, 2000), genetic background of the fish (Conover, 1992), species (Amoussou et al., 2016), difference between the initial weights (Abdel-Hakim et al., 2008), sexual dimorphism (Bwanika et al., 2007;Ridha, 2011;Wadgy et al., 2011;Chakraborty and Benerjee, 2012). It was reported that the discrepancy in the growth performance between male and female tilapia is multi-factorial. It is believed to be related to channeling of energy from somatic growth toward egg production in females (Rakocy and McGinty, 1989;Baroiller and Borel, 1997), anabolic effects of the male sex steroids and growth hormones, genes linked to sex determination and greatly reduced feeding activity of brooding females (Toguyeni et al., 1997a;Toguyeni et al., 2002).

Journal of Biology and Life Science
However, the growth influencing factors considered in this study are: feed content and quality, feeding management, stocking density, rearing device, trial duration, rearing water quality; feed intake level of fish, sexual dimorphism, difference in initial weights of fish at stocking, difference in final weights of fish at harvesting, fish strain, genetic background of fish.

Final Mean Body Weight
O. niloticus juvenile monosex at the end of the experiment presented a final mean body weight of 402.18 ± 137.05 g, higher than the values of 255.53 ± 16.36; 227.24 ± 15.05; 206.36 ± 14.06 and 172.62 ± 14.89 g reported for similar populations reared for 120 days and fed with a commercial pelleted floating feed (29% protein) at 3-5% of body weight in cages at densities of 50, 75, 100 and 125 fish/m 3 respectively (Moniruzzaman et al., 2015). The disparity of results could be attribute to the difference in the protein content of fish feed, the stocking density, and the trial duration. It is also observed that an increase in stocking density results in lower body weight of fish. On the other hand, lower final mean body weight values of 200.08 ± 0.8 and 123.4 ± 0.76 g were also reported respectively for juvenile monosex male and mixed sex populations of the same species after 6 months of pond culture (3 fish/m 2 ) using 28% crude protein diet twice daily at 4% body weight (Githukia et al., 2015). An average weight of 217.90 g has also been reported for O. niloticus grown in floating cages (135 fish/m 3 ) on the Niger River after 225 days of rearing, based on a diet containing 31% of proteins, 1/3 of which are of animal origin (Lazard and Legendre, 1994). Disparity between authors' results may be due to variation in diet protein quality and content; difference in stocking density, rearing device, trial duration; and sex-specific difference. Indeed, number of study has reported a faster growth rate in male monosex when compared to mixed sex O. niloticus (Mair et al., 1995;Dan and Little, 2000;Little et al., 2003;Chakraborty et al., 2011). Due to their sexual dimorphism, males grow significantly larger and are more uniform in size than females (Ponzoni et al., 2005;Nguyen et al., 2007). Dagne et al. (2013) highlighted that lack of energy expenditure in egg production and mouth brooding by females and lower energy expenditure on courtship are some of the reasons behind faster growth rate in male monosex tilapia. According to de Oliveira et al. (2012), stocking density is the concentration that fish are stocked into a system. It directly influences fish growth, feed utilization, survival and fish health (Lovell, 1989;Wocher et al., 2011). Rearing fish at inappropriate stocking densities may impair growth and reduce immune competence due to factors such as social interactions and deterioration of water quality, that negatively affect the feed conversion efficiency and growth of the fish (Ellis et al., 2002).

Average Daily Weight Gain
The ADWG of O. niloticus monosex in this study after 215 days trial at a stocking density of 48 fish/m 3 is of 1.83 ± 0.08 g. It is greater than the value of 1.05 g reported for juvenile male monosex after 6 months of pond culture (3 fish/m 2 ) using 28% crude protein diet twice daily at 4% body weight (Githukia et al., 2015). On the other hand, an ADWG of 0.62 g was presented by a mixed sex juvenile of the same species, reared in ponds (Githukia et al., 2015). The influence of density is also highlighted because Moniruzzaman et al. (2015) under cage-culturing system reported ADWG values of 2.01 g; 1.76; 1.59 and 1.31 g for O. niloticus juvenile male reared at densities of 50 ; 75 ; 100 and 125 fish/m 3 respectively. With higher density, authors obtained lower ADWG compared to our study. This result corroborates the observations of Lovell (1989) and Wocher et al. (2011) who reported that stocking density directly influences fish growth and feed utilization. Rearing fish at inappropriate stocking densities may impair its growth (Ellis et al., 2002). Only all males bred at a stocking density of 50 fish/m 3 performed relatively better than that of our study. This disparity could be due to difference in fish strain (GIFT strain) and initial mean weight of fish (15.20 ± 0.15 g) used by Moniruzzaman et al. (2015), compared to that of our study (initial mean weight: 8.87 ± 4.89 g). Lower ADWG (0.81 g) than that of our study was reported by Lazard and Legendre (1994), for O. niloticus reared in cage at a density of 135 fish/m 3 . Nevertheless, higher growth has been reported for male monosex of Nile tilapia raised at a density of 83 fish/m 3 in circular cages (Silva et al., 2015). Using males and females of a genetically improved strain (GIFT) of O. niloticus cultured in recirculating tanks, the values of 3.19 ± 0.08 g and 1.93 ± 0.04 g were respectively reported while males and females of unimproved strains exhibited ADWG of 2.16 ± 0.22 and 1.18 ± 0.08 g respectively in the same rearing system (Ridha, 2011). It is understood that fish strain has significant influence on its growth.

Specific Growth Rate
The SGR obtained in this study (0.77 ± 0.03 %/day) is lower compared to the values of 1.83 ± ISSN 2157-6076 2020 0.15%/day and 1.47 ± 0.18%/day reported respectively for pond raised O. niloticus monosex male and mixed sex (Githukia et al., 2015). The SGR of this study is also lower than the rates of 2.35; 2.25; 2.17 and 2.02%/day reported by Moniruzzaman et al. (2015) in floating cage culture for the monosex male of the same species at the stocking densities of 50; 75; 100 and 125 fish/m 3 respectively. This disparity could be attributed to difference in stocking density, fish strain, rearing device, and fish feeding management. In recirculating tanks culture system, genetically improved strain (GIFT) of O. niloticus showed higher SGR (male: 1,03±0,01 %/day ; female : 0,86±0,03 %/day) versus unimproved strain SGR (male: 0,86±0,03 %/day; female: 0,72±0,04%/day) (Ridha, 2011). All monosex male Nile tilapia in this study showed better SGR than unimproved female strain. This could be attributed to fish strain and sexual dimorphism of the fish.

Feed Conversion Ratio
FCR is considered as an important indicator of the quality of fish feed and lower FCR indicates better utilization of the fish feed (Mugo-Bundi et al., 2013). This study showed lower FCR (1.74 ± 0.09) compared to 1.81; 1.92; 1.97, and 2.05 reported by Moniruzzaman et al. (2015) for juvenile monosex male tilapia raised in floating cages at densities of 50; 75; 100 and 125 fish/m 3 . This performance could be due to the quality of the feed used in this study and the feeding management. On the other hand, the FCR of juvenile monosex tilapia in this study is respectively lower than that of 1.92 ± 0.03 reported for mixed sex tilapia in pond culture (Githukia et al., 2015), and 3.0 reported by Lazard and Legendre (1994) in floating cage culture in Niger. According to Ellis et al. (2002) rearing fish at inappropriate stocking densities may impair growth and reduce immune competence due to factors such as social interactions and deterioration of water quality, that negatively affect the feed conversion efficiency and growth of the fish.

Protein Efficiency Ratio
Protein is the main constituent of the fish body thus sufficient dietary supply is needed for optimum growth (Pillay, 1990). Protein efficiency ratio (PER) is based on the weight gain of a test subject divided by its intake of a particular food protein during the test period (Buamah and Singsen, 1975). According to Bahnasawy et al. (2009), fish growth is significantly affected by diet protein level. The PER of this study (1.62 ± 0.06) is in the interval from 1.25 to 1.98 reported by Khattab et al. (2000) for Nile tilapia in pond culture. It is also between the range of 1.34 to 1.85 reported for O. niloticus reared in recirculating water system, using feed containing respectively 35% and 20% crude protein content at a stocking density of 60 fish/m 3 (Bahnasawy et al., 2009). Ahmad et al. (2004) found PER of 1.92; 1.58 and 1.98 for tilapia fingerlings (20.3 g) reared in concrete tanks using a recirculating system and a diet containing 25; 35 and 45% crude protein respectively. The disparity between results could be due to difference in: the diet protein content, feed quality, feeding management, the feed intake level of fish, the final weight of fish, the breeding water source and the breeding device indirectly. Indeed, Ghozlan et al. (2018) reported a significant influence of water sources on PER. According to the authors, PER is significantly improved with each increase in pond sizes and decrease in stocking density. Ellis et al. (2002) also reported that rearing fish at inappropriate stocking density may lead to water quality deterioration and affect negatively the feed conversion efficiency. However, cage farming in a water body offers the advantage of automatic or natural water renewal without any kind of energy.

Survival Rate
Male monosex tilapia in this study showed a good SR value of 91.5%. In comparison to the literature which highlights the effect of density on survival, higher SR values (96.8 and 92.6%) were reported by Moniruzzaman et al. (2015) for monosex tilapia reared under cage culture system at densities of 50 and 75 fish / m 3 respectively. On the other hand, respectively similar (91.2%) and lower (83.1%) survival rate were reported by the same authors for monosex tilapia bred at stocking densities of 100 and 125 fish/m 3 under the same culture system. In addition, a similar survival rate (90.70%) to that of our study was reported for O. niloticus monosex reared in floating cage at a stocking density of 135 fish/m 3 (Lazard and Legendre, 1994). That performance, despite the high density applied by these authors could be favored mainly by the higher initial mean weight (35.70 g) of the fish.

Body Development of Fish
At the end of the study, the fish showed significant increase in the recorded eight morphometric parameters. Indeed, the length gain (cm) obtained was of 18.74 for TL; 15.99 for SL; 4.97 for PL; 2.46 for HL; 10.04 for DFBL; 2.18 for IOW; 6.44 for BH and 2.42 for CPH. The daily body development (cm) of this species is therefore of 0.087 for TL; 0.074 for SL; 0.023 for PL; 0.011 for HL; 0.047 for DFBL; 0.010 for IOW; 0.030 for BH and 0.011 for CPH.
The comparative growth performance of male monosex and mixed sex Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) (Initial mean weight: 12.2 g; initial mean TL: 7.6 cm) reared in earthen ponds was performed by Githukia et al. (2015). Daily length gain values of 0.08 cm and 0.06 cm were showed respectively by the monosex male and mixed sex at a stocking density of 3 fish/m² . A relatively better result (0.087 cm) was obtained in this study after 215 days of trial using floating cages at a stocking density of 48 fish/m 3 or 120 fish/m² . These performances could be attributed to the difference between rearing devices, duration of breeding, crude protein content of feed and feeding management.
Kebede (2011) studied for 6 months the effect of food quality (22 to 24.28% CP) on the growth performance of mixed sex O niloticus raised in floating cages. The characteristics of the fish at the beginning of rearing were of 42.80 -43.51 g for weight, 11.93 -12.5 cm for TL and the stocking density was 100 fish/m 3 . The daily length gain (0.087 cm for TL) recorded in the males of O. niloticus in our study was higher, compared to the values reported for mixed sex cohorts ranging from 0.026 to 0.034 cm/day. This difference observed in body development could be attributed to the high stocking density, sex dimorphism, rearing duration, and lower crude protein content of the diet used by this author.
The effect of stocking density on growth of monosex tilapia (O. niloticus) (initial mean weight: 15.20 g; initial mean total length: 9.16 cm) under cage culture in Kaptai Lake of Bangladesh was performed by Moniruzzaman et al. (2015). Daily length gain values of 0.116; 0.106; 0.10 and 0.078 cm were reported after 120 days of rearing, respectively at stocking densities of 50; ISSN 2157-6076 2020 75; 100 and 125 fish/m 3 . In spite of the lower crude protein content of the pelleted feed (28.76%) distributed, O. niloticus showed better growth compared to the one obtained in our study except for the cohort reared at the density of 125 fish/m 3 . This high performance could mainly be attributed to the genetically improved strain used by these authors, and also to the difference in the initial mean body weight of the fish. At the end of 180 days of rearing at similar stocking density (49 fish/m 3 ) in floating cages, O. mossambicus fed on natural resources showed a daily length gain (0.084 cm) similar to that obtained in our study, while higher growth (0.103 cm) has been reported for the same species when fed with commercial pellet (Balkhande, 2019). The effect of stocking density on the production of Nile tilapia (O. niloticus) (Akosombo strain) (initial mean body weight: 2.09 -2.15 g; initial standard length: 3.97 -4.09 cm) was also studied in floating cages on the Volta Lake by Asase (2013) at the stocking densities of 50; 100 and 150 fish/m 3 . At the end of 177 days of rearing test, the daily length gain values for SL showed by the fish in increasing order of the densities were as follows: 0.075; 0.072 and 0.069 cm. Except for the fish raised at a density of 150 fish/m 3 , the results showed by O. niloticus are similar to those obtained at the end of our study. However, a decline in body development is observed with an increase in density.

Length-Weight Relationship
The length-weight relationship of O. niloticus monosex was established, based on the equation BW = 0.0196 TL 3.0124 (R² = 0.8824) (Figure 2). Indeed, the value of the coefficient b (3.0124) is not significantly different from 3, thus revealing an isometric growth of the fish considering the scale of Ricker (1973). There is, therefore, a good distribution in length and weight of the body development. This observation is in line with that reported by Silva et al. (2015) in juvenile monosex male Nile tilapia (initial mean weight = 28.6 ± 4.16 g) raised in circular cages (12 m 3 each). The good distribution of growth in this population could be attributed to: the absence of females, whose early maturity and reproduction usually contribute to overpopulation and stunting, leading therefore to poor quality and small size fish (Lazard, 2009).

Conclusion
The results of the present study revealed good adaptation and good growth performance and body development of male monosex Oreochromis niloticus in-cage farming system. This breeding structure has enabled an automatic and natural renewal of water, thus maintaining a suitable quality for fish growth. In addition, the stocking density adopted (50 fish/m 3 ) in accordance with the recommendations of the literature has contributed to obtaining a good fish survival and a good use of the feed distributed. All these factors allowed for a better expression of the performances of the species. Promoting the growing-finishing of male monosex Nile tilapia in cage culture system could therefore be recommended to farmers to improve their production so that they could make more effective contribution to achieving food security and improving their profits.