On 8 July, IITA–CGIAR, under the HealthyDiets4Africa Project, funded by the EU, received northern farmers from Entojutu Sustainable Development Foundation on an exposure trip to facilitate safe and sustainable feed production for livestock farmers. As part of the EU Green Deal and EU Farm-to-Fork Strategy, the HealthyDiets4Africa Project aims to contribute to the transformation of African food systems through diversification for an improved supply of safe, nutritious, and affordable food in a resilient, sustainable, and climate-friendly environment.
The founder of Entojutu Sustainable Development Foundation, Tobi Adegbite, in partnership with HealthyDiets4Africa and Mercy Corp, has taken up the course to demonstrate the use of Black Soldier Fly (BSF) as a solution to convert food waste into compost for plants as organic manure and protein meal for livestock. They support farmers in gaining experience in successfully raising BSF and integrating its adoption in their farms.
IITA Business Incubation Platform CEO Debo Akande welcomed the partners on behalf of IITA Director General Dr Simeon Ehui. He assured them of continued support and access to IITA solutions to enhance their farming activities and food production for optimal productivity. He stated that increased demand for food and high competition for plant protein sources for animal feed necessitate innovative technologies like BSF to save soya beans and other protein sources for human consumption.
The farmers shared their field evidence, challenges, and successes in exploring black soldier fly as animal feed, including weather challenges, waste sourcing, leveraging partnerships, and scaling up production. They visited the Insect4Feed unit of IITA, an animal abattoir, and the Entojutu facility in Ibadan to learn waste-sourcing tips and BSF-raising techniques for successful production.
IITA Food Safety Scientist and member driver of the HealthyDiets4Africa Project, Titilayo Falade, highlighted IITA’s contributions to healthy diets and mycotoxin mitigation. She said IITA-CGIAR addresses micronutrient deficiency in foods by releasing bio-fortified maize and cassava varieties. IITA Cotonou station in Benin also provides cheaper protein sources for feed formulation. BSF is used to produce quails and for fish farming. The frass fertilizer of the BSF larvae is also used as a bio-fertilizer. All these are aimed at providing healthier diets for Africans.
IITA-CGIAR is exploring BSF use to improve food security and food safety in an experimental introduction of Aspergillus flavus food to contaminate the waste fed to BSF to see if food contaminants passed from food waste to the BSF larvae are retained by them. Falade said, “We are working with Entojutu to explore using BSF to reduce waste. Also, valorizing waste to ensure contaminated waste fed to the BSF does not potentially pose food safety issues to consumers. We already have interesting results to share later. We will continue to explore important aspects of food safety and other agronomic aspects of food security for Africa.”
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Contributed by Folake Oduntan
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