Botswana 100-150kg/H Floating Fish Feed Production Line

Turning Local Ingredients Into High-Value Feed: Raw Materials for the Botswana Plant

Botswana's semi-arid climate supports diverse crop production, which can be effectively leveraged for fish feed manufacturing. For this floating fish feed production line in Botswana project, the farmer developed a practical formula using locally accessible raw materials, balancing cost, availability, and nutritional value for his fish stock.

Typical ingredients include:

• Maize grains and maize bran, the foundation of many feeds in Southern Africa, offering carbohydrates and energy.
• Fishmeal, derived from local fishery waste when possible, ensuring high protein levels vital for healthy fish growth.
• Sunflower cake, a by-product of Botswana’s thriving sunflower oil extraction activities, supplying protein and essential fats.
• Sorghum meal, which adds to the carbohydrate mix and is widely grown in Botswana.
• Mineral and vitamin premixes, small yet crucial additions to ensure that the formulated feed meets the nutritional standards needed for strong immunity and healthy weight gain.

A representative mix for this farmer's fish feed might look like:

• Maize: 35%
• Fishmeal: 30%
• Sunflower cake: 20%
• Sorghum meal: 12%
• Premix & oil: 3%

These local ingredients help the farmer cut feed costs significantly while boosting the nutritional value of the feed. Importantly, by relying on regionally produced raw materials, he contributes to Botswana’s broader goal of food security and agricultural self-reliance.

A Practical fish feed Production Line: Keeping Things Simple and Cost-Effective

With a modest budget in mind, the goal of this floating fish feed plant design was to keep operations straightforward, reliable, and cost-effective without sacrificing pellet quality. The system delivers consistent floating feed pellets for daily pond feeding and is built to be managed by minimal staff — a perfect fit for the size of his farm.

The production process of this floating fish feed production line in Botswana unfolds in clear, essential stages:

1. Crushing: Raw ingredients first pass through a fish feed hammer mill. Powered by an 11kw motor, the mill reduces grains and cakes to the fine particle size required for uniform extrusion. Fine grinding is crucial to ensure smooth cooking during the extrusion phase and stable pellet formation.
2. Mixing: After grinding, the feed particles enter a 3kw single-shaft ribbon mixer. The design ensures strong convection and uniform mixing, which is essential when dealing with protein-rich and moisture-sensitive ingredients like fishmeal and sunflower cake.
3. Pelletizing (Extruding): Next, the blend moves to the heart of the system: a 37kw dry type fish feed extruder machine. This machine combines mechanical pressure and heat to gelatinize starches, sterilize the mix, and shape it into floating pellets. The dry type extruder was selected specifically for this project due to its affordability, ease of operation, and minimal maintenance needs — perfectly matched for small and medium farm setups.
4. Drying: Once formed, the fresh pellets contain residual heat and moisture. A 24kw mesh belt dryer gently removes excess moisture, extending shelf life and ensuring pellet integrity.
5. Oil Spraying: To enhance aroma and palatability, the dried pellets pass through an oil spraying machine, which coats them uniformly with high-speed atomized oil. This step improves taste and helps reduce feed dust during handling.
6. Cooling: Finally, pellets are cooled in a counterflow cooler. As they harden, the risk of breakage during storage or pond handling is minimized, ensuring more uniform feeding and less waste.

Final Product and Application: Floating Pellets for Local Pond Use

The pellets produced range from 2 to 6mm in diameter, perfectly suited to the growth stages of popular freshwater species cultivated in Botswana’s aquaculture industry. Unlike larger commercial plants that include bagging and labeling systems for retail sales, this project intentionally left out a packaging section to keep costs low — all feed is produced and used directly on the farmer’s own ponds.

The focus is simple: high-quality floating feed for everyday feeding, produced in batches small enough for immediate use but large enough to allow for short-term storage if necessary.

Detailed Equipment Configuration

Below is the final equipment configuration for the Botswana floating fish feed line:

With total installed power at approximately 50kw/h and an installation period of just 10 days, the farmer was able to get his floating fish feed production line in Botswana up and running quickly, with RICHI’s engineering team providing installation guidance, operational training, and on-site troubleshooting to ensure smooth startup.

Project Timeline and Cost: A Realistic Investment for Growth

The entire floating fish feed production line in Botswana project was delivered within a tight budget 15,000, depending on local adjustments for power supply, installation, and minor design changes made to match the farm’s specific needs. Commissioned on January 2, 2017, this feed line quickly proved its value by significantly lowering the cost per kilogram of feed compared to commercially purchased products.

The workshop housing the production line measures 10m in length, 3m in width, and 5m in height — small enough to fit in a repurposed shed next to the ponds yet spacious enough for safe operation and storage of raw materials.

The Local Impact: Botswana's Aquaculture is Ready to Grow

Botswana’s aquaculture industry is still in its early stages compared to its Southern African neighbors. However, as the country diversifies its economy beyond mining and tourism, aquaculture holds real promise for rural job creation, nutritional security, and import substitution.

One of the biggest hurdles facing fish farmers here is feed cost. With most high-quality fish feed imported from South Africa or beyond, local farmers often pay a premium, squeezing margins thin and slowing expansion. By investing in small-scale feed production lines like this, farmers gain control over their single largest expense while creating opportunities for other local farmers to source feed ingredients and services.

RICHI Machinery has already seen similar ripple effects in Botswana’s feed sector, having delivered animal feed projects such as a 200-300kg/h broiler feed line (commissioned on December 24, 2019) and a small poultry feed machine for chicken feed pellets (ordered on October 24, 2020). Together, these projects show how practical, well-matched technology can unlock value across different livestock and fish farming segments.

Innovation for the Future: Localized Feeds, Sustainable Farms

This Botswana project illustrates a crucial point: cost-effective technology can transform a fish farm’s entire business model. By converting locally grown maize, sorghum, and sunflower into fresh, floating feed, the farmer reduces costs, boosts self-reliance, and contributes to Botswana’s push for agricultural value addition.

The experience has also encouraged the farmer to experiment with feed formulations, exploring new combinations to optimize feed conversion ratios while keeping costs stable. This agility would have been impossible under the old system of relying solely on commercial feed suppliers.

A Strong Case for Local Feed Production with RICHI

This 100-150kg/h floating fish feed production line in Botswana has turned what was once the farm’s biggest expense into a manageable, predictable investment with clear returns. The streamlined process, simple equipment, and local resource integration make this project a blueprint for other Botswana farmers who want to control their feed destiny.

With proven installations, responsive technical support, and practical designs that scale with a farm’s ambitions, RICHI Machinery continues to stand out as the partner of choice for transforming feed production from a cost burden into a competitive edge.

Thinking about launching your own small fish feed mill project in Botswana or beyond? Talk to RICHI Machinery today and discover how our practical solutions and expert support can help you turn local crops into high-quality feed — sustainably, affordably, and profitably.