Sources and Uses of Fuel for Fish Smoking Around the Lake Chad in Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

Fuel around the rural fishing community of the Lake Chad in Borno state is scarce and expensive. Where it is available it is at a distance of 120km therefore alternative and strategy must be developed to provide fuel to the fishing community to preserve the large volume of fish landed around the Lake Chad. A visit was made to the lake shores to identify the various types of materials in use by the processors as fuel and analysis of the fuel types were made, especially moisture content being the most important factor in determining the energy value of a fuel.  The fuel types were compared to the type and quantity of fish landed daily. The analysis of variance between paired fuel types was found to be significant at 1% with low coefficient of variation. In this study Eucalyptus camaldulenis and Acacia senegal were found to have the least moisture content and available to processors. Rice hull which has a 0.001% surface moisture content was not known to the processors as biofuel. Which we hope to introduced at the end of the research. The use of cowdung was always minimized due to its social ills.