Intensification of aquaculture practices to enhance the production at par with the increasing demand has led to more dependency on supplementary feeds. Feed cost has a significant share of about 60-70% of the total production costs and hence, feed wastage needs to be minimal in a culture system. Overfeeding leads to feed wastage while underfeeding affects the production. Feeding devices that will effectively dispense the feed in the ponds are of great importance. Demand type feeders have been found better to reduce feed wastage as compared to automatic feeders that dispense fixed amount of feed at preset timings. Since most of the farmers in underdeveloped and developing countries can't afford systems using high-end technology, low cost indigenous systems are necessary to meet the needs of small and marginal farmers. This study aims to develop a novel feeding system which will simply mechanize the current method of feeding practiced by the farmers and optimize the amount of feed dispensed, thus reducing the feed wastage. The designed feeder is mobile, hence can feed aquaculture ponds of any size. The prototype of the proposed design has been constructed and is under thorough testing in laboratory and field conditions.
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