Prestigious award for a young IFWA entrepreneur

Noël Obognon, a former IFWA student at the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin, won the second prize at the Young African Entrepreneurs Competition (West Africa), organized by the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM). Noël presented his new cooperative society, Agro-Eco Services, founded in 2018 on the results of his master thesis and supported by IFWA. The cooperative society sells organic fertilizers obtained from residues of fly larvae produced from organic wastes.  His clients are fruit and vegetable farmers as well as NGOs. Fly larvae are used to feed poultry. Noël and his colleagues are now searching for investors to move from a manual production to an industrial production.

Congratulations to Noël and his co-workers, as well as to his supervisors and IFWA coordinator at the University Abomey-Calavi, who strongly supported him in this enterprise.

 

2019 was a successful years for IFWA publications

2019 has been another successful years for scientific publications from the IFWA project, with eight articles published in peer-reviewed journals and an additional four already available online. See the whole list of publications here.

Award for the best poster for an IFWA student

Faustin Dokui, IFWA  student at the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin, has won the price for the best poster at the “VIIème Colloque des Sciences, Cultures et Technologie de l’Université
d’Abomey-Calavi” that took place in  September 2019. The poster was entitled:

Faustin DOKUI, Fréderic M. HOUNDONOUGBO, Venant P. HOUNDONOUGBO et Christophe A. A. M., CHRYSOSTOME: Impact de la supplémentation en termites trinervius sur les performances  bioéconomiques des coquelets Isa Brown au démarrage.

Congratulations to Faustin and his supervisors

Big presence of IFWA at the AAIS congress

The 23rd meeting and conference of the African Association of Insect Scientists took place in Abidjan on  18-22 November 2019. Not less than 8 presentations of IFWA results were made:

F. SANKARA: Optimisation de techniques de production de larves de mouches domestiques (Musca domestica l.) A l’ouest du Burkina Faso.

S.C. POMALEGNI: Évaluation de l’influence de rations alimentaires á base de farine d’asticots sur le gain
de poids et la ponte des poulets locaux élevés de ferme Sud-Bénin.

H BOAFO: Use of termites by farmers as poultry feed in Ghana

S. NACAMBO: Substrats disponibles pour la production de larves de mouches pour l’aviculture en zone sahélienne

H GANDA: Effect of rearing substrate on morphometric parameters and chemical composition of housefly larvae, Musca domestica (diptera: muscidae)

A.N.C. DAO: Analyse des pratiques de collecte des termites pour a nutrition aviaire au Burkina Faso

H. VIAHO: Description d’un système de production de larves de mouche soldat noire Hermetia illucens dans une ferme avicole au centre (bénin), et prediction de la productivité d’un substrat.

A.A. ALLODEHOUN: Système de piégeage, de collecte et meilleurs substrats attractifs des termites au Bénin

Great success for the R4D Food Systems Caravan

The Food Systems Caravan is a synthesis activity of the r4d programme Food Security projects. It was a 8 weeks (23 Sept – 6 Nov 2019) itinerant and digital and media caravan which brought the main messages of r4d Food Security research projects to diverse institutions and the general public in the West African countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin and Nigeria.

The description and programme of the caravan are found here and details of the activities have been reported here.

The caravan had a great success in all visited countries. The project was coordinated by Dr Fernando Sousa (ORM4Soil project) and activities in Burkina Faso and Benin were strongly supported by IFWA researchers Dr Fernand Sankara and Dr Charles Pomalégni. Dr Siegfried Obresi also presented IFWA in Accra. IFWA activities were highlighted in various manners in the three countries, including during field visits. See  descriptions of field visits at IFWA site in Burkina Faso here and here and in Benin here.

Congratulations to the coordination team for having made this food system caravan such a wonderful event.

The first IFWA PhD in Burkina Faso

In August 2019, Abdoul Gafar Sanou (Université Nazi Boni, Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso), brilliantly defended his thesis entitled “Evaluation de facteurs de döveloppmeent de Musca domestica Linneus (Diptera: Muscidae) et mise au point de systèmes de production de masse de l’insecte pour l’alimentation de la volaille”.

Dr Sanou is the first IFWA student to obtain his PhD in Burkina Faso. Congratulations to him and to all his supervisors.

Promotion of three IFWA scientists

Last July we learned, during the 41st session of the CCES of CAMES 2019 held in Bangui in CAR, the brilliant academic promotion of three of our colleagues members of our IFWA team:

Dr. Charlemagne GBEMAVO: Maître Assistant (LAFMA) des Universités

Dr. Sylvain CHOGOU KPENAVOU and Dr. Fernand SANKARA: Maître de Conférences (LAFMC) des Universités.

Congratulations to all three