In its determination to cushion the effect of an increase in the prices of animal feeds through a home-based innovation, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture’s (IITA) Business Incubation Platform’s Insect4Feed project has commenced a 13-week entrepreneurship incubation programme to create sustainable and alternative feed sources for livestock.
The maiden edition of this entrepreneurship development incubation programme is targeted at insect4feed, providing opportunities that exist within the value chain of black soldier fly sustainable agriculture and showing the growing need for local producers, sustainability, and affordability of animal protein sources for the fish and poultry feed industries and users
Held at the IITA BIP section of the institute in Ibadan on Monday, the Insects4Feed Entrepreneurship Incubation Programme was organised by the IITA Business Incubation Platform (BIP), the University of Ibadan (UI), New Generation Nutrition (NGN), and ProEnto.
In his opening remarks, the Chief Executive Officer, IITA BIP, and also the Executive Adviser to the Oyo State Governor on Agribusiness, Dr Debo Akande, said the training was designed to provide a sustainable and affordable animal protein source for livestock feed for industries and users.
Akande, who said the insect-fed project was a new structured project in Nigeria supported by the Dutch Government and other partners, added, “Now, we are training the entrepreneurs that would be like the first pilots of the people that would be like the venture owners of this business within the state.
He explained that one of the benefits of the programme was that it could complement the challenges of livestock feeds and replace some other materials that are expensive and non-environmentally friendly.
“The other advantage is that this animal consumed solid waste so it could help solve the problem of solid waste that littered the environment and thereby solve the environmental issues
Speaking at the event, one of the facilitators from UI, Dr Kehinde Thomas, explained that “the training essentially is to balance development in terms of Nigerian food security; the direction has always been higher handlers, in this case, poultry and aquaculture.
He added, “But when you look at the soaring price of the protein component of the feeds, many farmers are now closing out. So research has shown that insects, particularly black soldier fly, are the best alternative, cheap, and environmentally friendly, while at the same time bringing money to the purses of people.
“The idea of the training is to multiply this innovation among smallholder farmers, particularly the poultry and what have you.
This innovation is gaining ground all over the world, and in Nigeria too, it is gaining ground, and that is why the business innovative platform is channelled towards entrepreneurs, who have also been carefully selected and then practised, while at the same time multiplying that in the environment they find themselves.”
According to one of the participants, Ambassador Sola Akinlude, who is also an agripreneur, “My aim here is to hone my skills and to see if what I have been doing is on the right track, and most importantly, I am here to update myself.”
He added that he has no regrets about going into business because it has not only made him self-sufficient but has also made him an employer of labour. “I now have six people working for me, and my immediate community is benefiting from it,” he revealed.
“The community benefits from it because my neighbours bring their waste to my house, and in turn, I give them free eggs from my poultry, which is in tandem with the motto of my farm, which is waste to wealth.”
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