Aquaculture has become a major contributor to food and nutrition security and enhanced livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. However, one of the major challenges is the lack of a stable supply of affordable, accessible, high-quality, and protein-rich feed to enhance productivity. Particularly small-scale aquaculture farmers have limited access to such feed because commercial feed is highly priced accounting for approximately 70% of their production costs.
Insect-based feed ingredients such as Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) are low-cost, nutrient-rich alternatives with the potential to become easily accessible to smallholders. BSFL are rich in protein and lipids and have an excellent amino acid profile making them a suitable and affordable option as aquaculture feed. They are more sustainable fish feed compared to soya and fishmeal with significantly lower carbon footprint. Also, BSFL generates a valuable byproduct i.e. frass which is a high-quality fertiliser. BSFL can be reared with relatively simple and low-cost methods, making it accessible, particularly for small-scale farmers. Despite its great potential, BSFL-based fish feed is not yet widely adopted in sub-Saharan Africa. The reasons BSFL are not yet widely available or adopted by a large number of smallholders, and whether specific contextual conditions are required for extensive uptake, remain unclear.
This study aims to explore the BSFL’s role as a regularly used component of fish feed among smallholders in Uganda. It seeks to identify key bottlenecks and opportunities for increased adoption to prepare for increased involvement in production of BSFL.
The methods include a literature review and in-depth interviews. The preliminary results can be summarised as shown in Figure 1.
This will be followed by a questionnaire survey, small-scale farmer workshops, and the final results will be presented in a dissemination workshop in October 2025.
Relevant main challenges can be categorised into increase of cultural, institutional, market, knowledge and production opportunities. These categories are further subdivided into specific sub-categories and will be validated by extensive interactions with and among smallholders.
This research is financed by the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).