The major ingredients in animal and fish feed—including soya beans, fish oil, and seed cakes—are becoming expensive, while the availability of fish as an ingredient in fishmeal is decreasing because of overfishing.
In contrast, insects are a readily available and cost-effective protein substitute in feed. Research on sustainable methods of multiplying insect species has identified a number of easy-to-adapt and cost-effective methods for raising and harvesting insects, as well as post-harvest techniques to provide feed for small-scale poultry and fish farmers in East Africa.
Insects have more protein than the plants commonly used to make feed. Insect protein is also nutritionally superior to protein obtained from these plants.
In this script, we interview Ugandan farmers involved in raising insects for feed. The interviews show the benefits of using insects for feed and some of the challenges farmers face in capturing and raising insects for animal feed.
You could use this script as inspiration to research and write a script on the best ways to capture and raise insects for poultry and fish feed.
Talk to farmers and other experts who use insects to feed farm animals, including fish. You might ask them:
What methods do you use to capture and raise insects? What insects do you raise? What are the most important things to remember in raising particular insects for feed?
Is raising insects for animal feed a profitable enterprise? What are the most important things to remember to make a profit? What are the major challenges, and how can they be successfully addressed?
http://scripts.farmradio.fm/radio-resource-packs/104-post-harvest-cow-pea/insects-might-ideal-feed-chickens-fish-part/ [1] and http://scripts.farmradio.fm/radio-resource-packs/104-post-harvest-cow-pea/insects-might-ideal-feed-chickens-fish-part-2/ [2]