As part of the "Development cooperation abroad through funds from the State of Baden-Württemberg - bwirkt! Ausland 2021", AgrarKontakte International (AKI) e.V. and the Community Health Education Center (CHE) implemented a project on "Production of fly larvae as sustainable poultry feed" in Kenya between December 2021 and December 2022. The project idea was to reduce feed costs for chickens by producing fly larvae as sustainable poultry feed from organic waste. As feed costs are a central issue not only in Kenya but also in many other countries, especially for smallholder farmers, this approach offers solutions to a very relevant problem.

Maggots are a good option with very strong leverage to recycle organic waste, reduce post-harvest losses and produce protein-rich feed with more water efficiency.

In addition to maggot production in theory and practice, as part of the training the participants got an impression about why it is good and necessary to use alternative protein sources such as maggots.

The theoretical part on maggot production covered the following topics:

• Conditions and habitat of maggots as well as their characteristics and needs;
• Production and use of substrate, "maggot harvesting“;
• Drying maggots, equipment needed, material requirements and documentation.

In the practical part, substrate production including fermentation process and storage, as well as manure management and the handling of organic waste as basis for the substrate were executed.

In total, 139 participants took part in the two-day trainings. Among them, 60 (43%) were female and 79 (57%) male. The participants were very interested in the topic and also surprised about how serious the environmental impact of not using organic waste can be in general.

The project was implemented with the financial support of the "State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg by the Stiftung Entwicklungs-Zusammenarbeit Baden-Württemberg (SEZ)".