FoodCycle

In Tanzania, poultry and fish farming is a significant income source, yet feed costs make up more than 70% of the production costs. The impact of my idea will reduce costs of fish & chicken feed by providing farmers with cheaper alternatives to commercial feeds leading to lower production costs and higher profits. The lower production costs will lead to more affordable prices of fish/chicken which will allow low-income families to eat meats regularly thus improved health. Commercial feeds use soy and fish as protein sources which has led to deforestation and overfishing, our solution will reduce this. Black Soldier Fly farming is our solution the this for use as poultry and fish feed and is an entirely new concept and has started being implemented worldwide very recently. It is in practice in many countries across the world but still at a very small scale. 

In Tanzania, poultry and fish farming is a significant income source, yet feed costs make up more than 70% of the production costs. The impact of my idea will reduce costs of fish & chicken feed by providing farmers with cheaper alternatives to commercial feeds leading to lower production costs and higher profits. The lower production costs will lead to more affordable prices of fish/chicken which will allow low-income families to eat meats regularly thus improved health. Commercial feeds use soy and fish as protein sources which has led to deforestation and overfishing, our solution will reduce this. Black Soldier Fly farming is our solution the this for use as poultry and fish feed and is an entirely new concept and has started being implemented worldwide very recently. It is in practice in many countries across the world but still at a very small scale. In Tanzania, I know of only 1 medium scale enterprise and 2 small scale enterprises which are currently doing this. 

We basically collect wasted food, especially rotting food thrown away at fruit and vegetable markets as well as dump sites in the country. We transport the rotting food to our project location to feed the larvae of flies especially the Black Soldier fly and the larvae grow in size after which we sell the live worms to chicken and fish farmers as feed and also to commercial chicken and fish feed manufacturers as alternative sources of proteins to add in their commercial feeds, thus replacing fishmeal and soy. The rise of use of insect-based proteins will lower the demand for fishmeal and soy, thus reducing overfishing and deforestation. The low prices of insect-based proteins will mean higher profits for farmers and lower prices of the final products (fish and chicken), thus making them more affordable for even the low-income class.

My beneficiaries are the hundreds of thousands of average chicken and fish farmers who are constantly worried about the price and affordability of commercial feeds and how they eat into his or her profits. My beneficiary is also the environment since we will be reducing deforestation, overfishing and wastage of fruits and vegetables which will end up in landfills and release greenhouse gases. My beneficiaries also include low income earners who will be able to afford fish and chicken since their prices will be lowered due to lower costs of feeds leading to improved healths and immunities.

If you go through my problem, proposed solution, target population and the challenge I selected, this is pretty self-explanatory. Our solution promotes use of insect-based proteins instead of soymeal and fishmeal which cause deforestation and overfishing and this clearly promotes the shift towards low-impact, diverse and nutritious diets since farming BSF doesnt cause any environmental harm/is low impact while the other 2 are high impact causing deforestation and overfishing.