In Kenya, about 50,000 small-scale fish farmers cultivate Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and African Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) in basic fishponds. The fishponds have low and unpredictable productivity, which is highly linked with bottlenecks around feed. Currently, about 70%-80% of production costs of small-scale farmers is needed for purchasing highly priced commercial feed (Table 1), often including protein sources with large climate footprints. The main aim of this article is to evaluate future needs among smallholders for locally produced feed given major trends, and to recommend ways to tackle main bottlenecks of using Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) (Hermetia illucens) as locally produced protein source in feed.
Recently, a new fish production system has been implemented in Kenya referred to as Affordable Recirculation Aquaculture Systems (A-RAS constructions). For A-RAS as well, feed remains a critical bottleneck. Four new A-RAS constructions owned by small-scale farmers, designed to be affordable and accessible and operating on solar energy, provide profits of around €7,000 per year, which for fishponds are about €250. Notably, in both cases, the cost of feed is higher than the profit margins for both systems; about €8,000 and €330, respectively. The existing A-RAS is being upgraded for improvements of water filtration system (A-RAS2). With use of A-RAS by a larger share of smallholders, demand of locally produced feed will increase in future.
Using BSFL as a protein source in feed fish is interesting because organic waste efficiently is converted into high-quality crude protein. Insights include that; 1) chopped dried BSFL is a cost-effective feeding strategy to replace at least up to 20% of the commercial diet for Nile tilapia; 2) use of locally produced BSFL provides an opportunity to increase food security and business development opportunities for low-income groups; 3) the waste issue is tackled by the production of BSFL for protein source in feed, as well as for a high-quality by-product, an organic fertilizer called frass; and 4) BSFL production has low environmental and climate footprints, following the principles of a local circular economy. It is remarkable that BSFL, given all the potentials, is not used to higher extent by smallholders across sub-Saharan Africa as protein source in feed. The reasons why will be presented in this article, as well as solutions to enhancing use of BSFL as feed source in the region given a set of future scenarios of demand.
This research is financed by the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as well as by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN) and Partnership for Water (RVO), the Netherlands.