Don urges Nigerians to explore frog farming for economic gains

A Zoologist, Prof. Moshood Mustapha of the Department of Zoology, University of Ilorin, has urged Nigerians to explore edible frog farming for economic gains.

Mustapha made the call in Ilorin, Kwara state, in his paper presentation while delivering the 210th Inaugural Lecture of the university, entitled: “Man-made Lakes: A means of Eradicating Man-made Poverty”.

He explained that against the increasing cost of fish and over-exploitation of edible frog known as Hoplobatrachusccipitalis from the wild in Nigeria, farming of these frogs became necessary.

“We decide to look at the possibility of culturing the species from the tadpole stage to full metamorphosis. Since frogs live in water, the success of their culture will depend on the operational water quality of the pond where they are raised,” he said.

The don, who teaches in the Faculty of Life Sciences in the university, however observed that one of the challenges to culturing frogs in ponds is the acceptability of artificial diets at tadpole stage.

The Zoologist disclosed that research conducted indicated that tadpoles were fed with pawpaw leaf, duckweed and coppens fish feed.

According to him, the tadpoles accepts and grow better when feed with duckweed, followed by pawpaw leaves, while fish feed was least accepted.

Mustapha postulated that edible frogs could be cultured from tadpole stage with good water quality and feeding with duckweed.

Similarly, the expert tasked government and other stakeholders on conservation efforts and strategies to be adopted to fight further loss of fish biodiversity in Nigeria lake ecosystem.

He asserted that this will maintain lake functions and sustain fish resources to meet today’s and future needs.

NAN / Foluke Ibitomi