Socio-Economic Efficiency of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia Illucens L.) Larvae Meal for Aquaculture Production

Fish feed is a major component in aquaculture production, accounting for 40-80% of total production costs. Protein is still the most expensive ingredient in fish feed. Fishmeal (FM) has traditionally been the predominant fish diet for aquaculture production in Kenya where Nile tilapia has been the dominant fish species. However, with declining catch fisheries, FM has become increasingly rare and expensive as a result of its demand from the human food and animal feeds industries. Due to the increased price of fish feed, farmed fish have low profit margins. For the industry's growth, it is therefore necessary to produce palatable and long-lasting alternative feeds that are inexpensive and nutritionally balanced. Despite being viable FM substitutes, insect-based protein sources like Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) have not been extensively studied for their economic use in aquaculture. In this study, the socioeconomic efficiency of using BSFL meal to replace fish meal in aquaculture production in Kenya was evaluated. The study's specific objectives were: 1) to determine the technical efficiency of BSFL in aquaculture, 2) to assess the economic efficiency of BSFL in aquaculture production, and 3) to evaluate the acceptability of BSFL in aquaculture production. To address technical and economic efficiency aspects, BSFL meal was used to substitute fish meal in the meals at 0% (control diet), 25% (Diet T2), 50% (Diet T3), and 75% BSFL inclusion levels (Diet T4). Awareness, perceptions, attitudes, and intentions to use BSFL meals in aquaculture were investigated to address the social efficiency element. Primary data were collected from 211 fish farmers in Kenya's Siaya, Kisumu, and Homabay counties using a cross-sectional survey design. To assess farmers' awareness, a binary logistic model was applied. With the use of SmartPLS 3.0, a structural equation model was used to investigate hypothesized paths of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the adoption of BSFL meal. Purposive sampling was utilized to select 40 experts, 24 of whom responded to the Delphi study. Kendall's coefficient of concordance was used to evaluate expert consensus. According to the findings, there were no significant differences in growth performance indicators, however, diet T3 was the best in terms of final mean weight, weight gain, daily weight gain, survival rate, Specific Growth Rate (SGR), Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR), and Feed Efficiency (FE). T3 was the most effective FM substitute for Nile tilapia fry for a lucrative and sustainable aquaculture business, with an 8.94% cost savings when compared to the control diet. An analysis of the cost effectiveness of the various diets revealed that diet T3 provided more economic advantages per kilogram of fish produced than the other diets. Over 53.6% of the fish farmers were aware of insect-based feeds but only 1.9%of the fish farmers had used BSFL in aquaculture. Awareness of insect-based feeds (IBFs) varied significantly across counties (2= 9.008, P= 0.011). The of the binary logistic regression results revealed that farming experience (p < 0.01), distance to feed sources (p < 0.05) and knowledge about components of existing feed (p < 0.01) positively significantly affected the farmers’ awareness of BSFL based aquafeeds, while farmers’ income (p < 0.01) negatively significantly affected the farmers’ awareness of BSFL. The results further indicated that fish farmers’ intention to use BSFL can be predicted by Attitude (β = 0.411, p = 0.000), Perceived Usefulness (β = 0.319, p = 0.000) and Perceived Ease of Use (β = 0.178, p = 0.004) with attitude having the greatest influence. According to Delphi study results, all stakeholders agreed that BSFL should be used as an alternative protein element in aquaculture. The assessment of the perceived benefits BSFL in aquafeed was statistically higher than the perceived risks, indicating a higher level of acceptability. Overall, this study suggests that a 50% inclusion level of BSFL, which is relatively cheap than conventional fish feeds. It is thus important to raise awareness and promote the use of BSFL in fish production by relevant government departments among fish farmers through multiple publicity channels and media.