Students win prize for sustainable aquaculture idea
TWO environmental science students at America’s Brown University have won an international prize for their idea to make Kenyan fish farming more sustainable.
Their project, called Kulisha, which means ‘to feed’ in Swahili, produces fish feed made from black soldier fly larvae as an alternative to feed made from wild caught fish.
The team, including Maya Faulstich-Hon and Kenya native Viraj Sikand, proposes to build a business of raising the larvae — which eat organic waste — and processing them into a fish feed that can then be sold to fish farmers.
Raising flies that are native to the country, eat waste, and don’t spread disease is sustainable, Sikand said.
The idea was con- vincing to the judges at the Thought for Food Challenge, which started with nearly 500 teams and came down to 10 finalists.
This summer, the team will return to Kenya with the award, worth $10,000, and other grants they have received to focus on implementation.
‘The TFF prize money, along with the other grant money, will be used to build a production facility, start a colony, and begin testing prototypes,’ Faulstich-Hon said.
‘In addition, we’ve partnered with a major tilapia farm, and by the end of the summer we’ll start trialling our product with them.’