About

ENTO-PRISE (2014-2015) is an AgriTT Research Challenge Fund Project (http://www.agritt.org/) bringing development practice and research expertise from China, the UK and Ghana together to improve food security through technology transfer and knowledge sharing.

Rationale: Rapidly urbanizing Ghana is challenged with meeting the growing demand for animal source foods, ensuring sanitary waste disposal and creating livelihood opportunities for the poor whilst in a context of globalised commodity trade, indigenisation of primary industries is threatened by low-cost imports of agricultural inputs and finished products. Waste streams from food chains (e.g. livestock manures, fruit and fish processing waste, urban market waste) currently impose both financial and environmental costs which their reuse could mitigate. Transforming agricultural wastes through insects provides a mechanism for producing local inputs valuable for both fish and crop production. The insect larvae can substitute for high quality imported feed ingredients, notably fishmeal (the most costly dietary component required by an intensifying tilapia aquaculture production sector).  Meanwhile, local production of nutrient-dense vegetables, often by women smallholder farmers, is constrained by nutrient scarcity. The leftover, ‘treated’ biomass can be used as bio-fertilisers, substituting for conventional fertilisers. This accelerated composting process is also of relevance to commercial composters of municipal and export-fruit processing wastes.

Insect Production: The project is implementing trials with local partners that build on previous experience (www.proteinsect.eu) in the production and use of maggots and by-products to support commercial development in Ghana. The project is piloting two black-soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) production systems co-located with strategic waste-streams and potential end-users for their technical, environmental, economic and social performance/acceptability. 

Commercialisation: Commercial partners include one the largest regional commercial tilapia producers, the first extruded-aquafeed plant to be established in Ghana and commercial composters of bio-wastes. Potential for commercial use of the co-products by for tilapia juvenile and broodstock production, smallholder Guinea fowl production and crop production by contract fruit-farmers and smallholder vegetable producers will be assessed and promoted. Waste substrates and co-products will be screened for potential contaminants and appropriate nutrient profiles. Environmental and public health impacts will be assessed considering all co-products using a range of tools including Life Cycle Analysis (LCA).

Knowledge Platform: This knowledge platform will host a growing repository of resources of relevance to those interested in commercialisation of black-soldier fly production. This will include an black-soldier fly production process-manual , a living-document which will evolve over the course of the project.