CMFRI at Kochi opens a winter school on Black Soldier Fly based fish feed technology

10 November 2026

A winter school on integrated Black Soldier Fly based feed technology has begun at the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute in Kochi. Dr Devika Pillai, Assistant Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, opened it. Waste thrown out by households and markets, she said, can serve as another protein source in fish feed and take some pressure off the wild stocks caught for fishmeal. Larvae of the Black Soldier Fly feed on biodegradable organic waste and build it into protein-rich biomass. Each day the country throws up something of the order of 171,000 to 190,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste. Between 50 and 60 per cent of that is biodegradable organic matter. Turning it into protein would tie waste handling to food production in a circular bioeconomy. The course also went into feed ingredients drawn from insects, microalgae, seaweeds and aquatic plants.