SLU is the academic partner in a collaborative WorldFish project in Sub-Saharan Africa. The project will run until 2027 and aims to increase the income and improve food security of 5,000 smallholder aquatic food producers as well as reduce waste and pollution in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia.
SLU is the academic partner in a 5-year partnership with WorldFish funded by Norad (Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation). The aim is to develop low-cost and highly nutritious aquatic feeds based on novel ingredients to improve the sustainability of aquatic food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The project, known as Development and Scaling of Sustainable Feeds for Resilient Aquatic Food Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (FASA), will run from 2022 to 2027 with a budget of approximately $8 million.
The project is expected to increase the income and improve food security of 5,000 smallholder aquatic food producers as well as reduce waste and pollution in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia, through the development and use of sustainable aquatic feeds.
What role does SLU have in the project?
- SLU employs multidisciplinary approaches in addressing critical issues (e.g. poor nutrition and health, diseases) in aquaculture animals, both at national and international levels. SLU's role in the project is to bring together the expertise in the field of nutrition, health, genetics and epigenetics from SLU as well as its collaborating institutes, says the project leader Dr. Kartik Baruah, Associate Professor at the Department of Animal Nutrition and Management at SLU.
It is important to employ a holistic approach to address issues associated with feed and nutrition in tropical aquaculture species, Kartik explains. One part will be to enhance feed acceptance and feed utilization in Tilapia and/or Catfish by "nutrition reprogramming". Researchers at SLU will supervise two doctoral students within the project
The project will run from 2022 to 2027 with Norad funding the initiative through a NOK 80 million (approximately $8 million) grant.