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« My aim is to set up a cluster of healthy fish with high nutritional value. »
Kevin Hounguè, promoter of CePiPA (Centre Pilote de Production Agricole), is a 55-year-old fish farmer living in the commune of Ifangni (south-east Benin) and working in the village of Ko-anagodo. He took part in the awareness-raising session facilitated by Swisscontact on black soldier fly larvae as a cheap alternative to expensive imported proteins used in the production of animal feed.
To improve the quality of fishmeal and the floatability of local feed, Swisscontact's Béninclusif project is helping the School of Aquaculture at the National University of Agriculture to develop effective and efficient feed formulas for tilapia fish using black soldier fly larvae and other locally available raw materials.
Kevin Hounguè was one of the first farmers to use these formulas to produce samples of local feed, which were tested for 3 months by students at the school as part of their degree.
The results of this small-scale experiment are conclusive. To spread the word, the project is working with 3 private companies, including the CePiPA centre, for large-scale production. The dissemination of these results helps catalyse a sustainable adoption of Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) in fish feed.
The project provided Kevin and 49 other fish farmers with training in the production of these larvae. He was accompanied by a project champion partner in setting up his aviary and larvarium. Kevin made full use of all the skills he had acquired to obtain a large number of larvae, enabling him to increase his income by 12.7%.
Thanks to the collaboration with the Adjohoun Aquaculture School facilitated by Swisscontact, Kevin's CePIPA centre now manufactures black soldier fly larvae to feed its fish and produces local industrial feed.
"The shallows have great potential, but it's being ignored. With the money I'm going to earn from this innovation, I'll be able to enlarge the lake, put in floating cages, hire young people and set up a quality fish cluster," concludes Kevin.
Thanks to support from Swisscontact's Beninclusif project, access to high-performance, competitive local feed is becoming a reality. Fish farmers who adopt the use of this larve-based feed will be able to reduce the cost of fish production, improve their productivity and increase their income.
This project is part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, which is co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA.