The project partners CABI and ARI took the opportunity of a stakeholder field visit to ARI on the use of fly larvae as animal feed to produce a video on the work done by the IFWA project. The video was made with support from the SAIRLA programme (Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning in Africa).
Animal Research Institute and CABI WAC have produced three leaflets explaining the use of fly larvae for poultry feed. They are available for printing here below but please note that they should better be read printed and fold in three.
Suitable substrates for production of black soldier fly larvae
Guidelines for the production of black soldier fly larvae
Guidelines for the production of housefly larvae meal for the smallholder poultry farmer in Ghana
At the Panfrican Poultry Conference in Lomé, Togo, on 13-17 May 2019, Appélété Arnaud Allodehoun PhD student at the Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, University of Abomey-Calavi, Bénin, won the 2nd prize of the best poster.
Title of the poster : Effet de la substitution de la farine de poisson par la farine d’asticots de mouche domestique sur les paramètres zoo-économiques des pintades locales élevées au Bénin
Congratulations to Appélété and his supervisors.
March 2019
Two PhD students successfully defended their theses in recent months:
Siegfried Obresie Afedzie, from CSIR-Animal Research Institute, Ghana, defended his thesis entitled Economic assessment of integ
rating black soldier fly larvae meal into feed for broiler production in Ghana, at the Univesrity of Ghana.
Adin Bloukounon Goubalan from the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin
, presented a thesis entitled Quality of the substrates decomposed by fly larvae and their potential as soil amendment.
Coverage of Adin’s defense on TV (see at 16:30)
Congratulations to Siegfried and Adin and their supervisors
February 2019
We are very pleased to announce that, based on IFWA results, the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin has launched a new Master programme on integrated systems in agricultural productions. See the programme here: Master FSA
For more information, write to fsa.uac@fsa.uac.bj, or directly contact Prof Christophe Chrysostome at larazefsauac@gmail.com.
January 2019
in 2018, IFWA partners published seven new publications in international journals and four are already available online for publication in 2019. See the updated publication list here. In addition, seven Master theses have been completed in 2018 and six are on-going. In total, at least 27 MSc thesis will be produced by IFWA in the course of the project. The list of MSc and PhD theses is available here.
May 2018
Marc Kenis and Saidou Nacambo represented IFWA at the “Insects to Feed the World” Conference in Wuhan, China, on May 15-18, 2018. Marc gave a talk on “Use of house flies as poultry feed by smallholder farmers in West Africa: prospects and constraints”. Saidou presented a poster entitled “Improving termite collection for poultry feed in smallholder farms in Northern Burkina Faso”. All abstracts of the conference can be found in a special issue of the Journal of Insects as Food and Feed.
Marc and Saidou in Wuhan, with Gabriela Maciel-Vergara and Emilie Devic, two former students in the Proteinsect project who helped developing the fly production systems presently being used in IFWA.
March 2018
The first IFWA meeting of the second phase of the project took place in Accra Ghana, where we were invited by our partners of the Animal Research Institute, CABI and Fish for Africa.This was the first meeting after we learnt that the project would be re-conducted for three more years.
All research sites were visited, as well poultry producers that have adopted the production of fly larvae for feeding their poultry, following recommendations of IFWA.
November 2017
On 27 November 2017, in Cotonou, Benin, Sèchémé Charles Betrand Pomalégni successfully and brilliantly defended his PhD thesis entitled “Perceptions, performances zootechniques et qualité nutritionnelle de la viande de poulets locaux (Gallus gallus) nourris avec des rations alimentaires à base de larves de mouche (Musca domestica, Linnaeus 1758) au Bénin”
Congratulations to Charles and his professors
Coverage of the PhD Defence on TV
August 2017
Pomalegni et al. (2017) present the results of a survey in Benin on the utilisation of fly larvae by poultry farmers. It shows that nearly 6% of the farmers feed their poultry with fly larvae at least occasionally. Fly larvae are produced by exposing various wastes as substrates to attract naturally occurring flies. A total of 28 substrates used to produce larvae were cited by farmers. The most cited substrates were soy and maize bran and pig and chicken manure. Factors influencing the use of fly larvae as poultry feed are analysed. In a previous paper, Pomalegni et al (2016) had shown that, in Benin, 86% of the farmers that do not yet use fly larvae are ready to do it.
Koné et al. (2017) analysed data from a previous project in Mali on a house fly production system based on substrate exposure for natural oviposition. It showed that 1 kg of dry chicken manure provides on average 124 g of fresh larvae but important seasonal variations occur, and yields over 400 g per kg of manure were obtained in the rainy season. The addition of blood or fish offal increases yields and can also poor substrates such as sheep manure. Recommendations for the setting up and optimisation of a house fly larvae production system in West Africa are suggested. An illustrated description of the system is also provided as supplementary material.
Other publications and technical guidelines are found in our Project outputs.