Two students from Brown University, along with their collaborators, were granted a USD 10,000 (EUR 8,875.53) prize for their development of an aquaculture feed alternative to help increase Kenyan food supply.
The project spearheaded by the students is called Kulisha, which means "to feed" in Swahili; it involves the creation of fish feed made from black soldier fly larvae rather than wild-caught fish. The student group – which includes environmental science undergraduates Maya Faulstich-Hon and Kenya native Viraj Sikand – proposes establishing a fly larvae business to process the insects and then sell the resulting feed to fish farmers. Raising flies that are native to the country, eat waste and don't spread disease is sustainable, Sikand said.
Judges residing over the Thought for Food Challenge, which started with nearly 500 teams and came down to 10 finalists, picked Kulisha as the overall winner of the entire contest, according to a press release. The Kulisha team will return to Kenya with their winnings this summer, along with other grants they have received, to implement their plan.
"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 trialing our product with them."
