SUPPORTING FARMERS IN THE BSF PRODUCTION THROUGH TECHNICAL BACKSTOPPING

As part of its initiative to improve farmers' knowledge of the Black Soldier fly-rearing techniques, the BBEST project and BNARI visited the BSF decentralized units in Ghana and engaged with the managers. The visit aimed at providing technical backstopping to the BSF unit managers on the types of substrates to use at each level of the cycle, the feed formulation, the processing of the larvae, and the composting of the Frass among others, and remind them of the best practices in producing safe feed for the animals and quality organizer for soil fertility and restoration. The entomologists informed the managers of the importance of data collection in the rearing and urged them to keep records of all aspects of the rearing. They collected the substrates used by the farmers for laboratory analyses to further inform on the best practices in these BSF decentralized units. IITA and BNARI will continue to provide technical backstopping to the farmers to enable them to engage in best practices concerning rearing and to ensure that the final products meet the requirements of the standard.