Dr. Hillary Egna

The Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) has selected Dr. Hillary Egna, Director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Aquaculture & Fisheries at Oregon State University, and a team of her research collaborators as recipients of the 2018 BIFAD Award for Scientific Excellence in a Feed the Future Innovation Lab.

The award recognizes the team for its work to address the critical production constraint of feed costs in aquaculture enterprises. The AquaFish Innovation Lab team has focused on finding low-cost alternatives to fishmeal in aquaculture diets for both small-scale and medium-scale fish farmers. The team’s research impacts include:

• The development of alternative-protein-formulated pelleted feeds for snakehead (Channa striata) in the Mekong Delta and the adoption of this formulation by 90 % of the commercial feed mills in the region, resulting in higher profits for farmers.  More than ten of the largest commercial feed industry mills adopted the formulation and subsequently changed the way these fish are fed and grown in much of southeast Asia.  The work also influenced the lifting of a decade-old ban on snakehead production in Cambodia imposed because snakehead farming caused illegal fishing.
• The use of high-quality, affordable, non-fish protein sources derived from local ingredients available to small-scale farmers to be used in fish feeds in Kenya; and
• The adoption of alternate-day feeding strategies in Thailand, the Philippines, and Bangladesh.  Innovation Lab results demonstrated that tilapia/carp polyculture profits can increase by as much as 200% by feeding half the standard ration.

The research team has also conducted trainings on sustainable feed technologies for more than 3,500 farmers, managers, and policy-makers in 11 countries.

The Aquafish Innovation Lab research team includes, in addition to Dr. Egna: Dr. David Bengtson, Professor Emeritus at the University of Rhode Island; Dr. Remedios Bolivar, Professor at Central Luzon State University, Philippines;  Dr. Russell Borski, Professor at North Carolina State University; Dr. Charles Ngugi, Courtesy Professor at Kenyatta University, Kenya; Dr. Tran Thi Thanh Hien, Associate Professor at Can Tho University, Vietnam; and Dr. Md. Abdul Wahab, Professor, Bangladesh Agricultural University.