Sumbawa (UTS) – The Animal Husbandry Study Program, Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, conducted a Visit to the Cage for the Cultivation of Maggot Black Soldier (BSF) Solutions for Handling Organic Waste & As a High Protein Feed Source. This activity was held on Wednesday, 10 May 2023 where the speakers for the activity were Windu Fajar Arum and Samuyus Nealma, S.KH., M.VET.
Livestock is one of the strategic industries to support food availability in Indonesia, but most of the production costs are spent on feed requirements, reaching 60-70%. Forage is something that livestock can eat, does not affect health and promotes growth. One of the nutrients that need attention in nutrition is protein. However, protein-based feedstuffs tend to be relatively expensive, which affects livestock, especially medium and small scale farms.
The increase in the price of protein sources is accompanied by a large population and increasing demand for animal products, thus threatening food security. Of course, what is more concerning is the higher price of protein feed raw materials, because the price of feed is an important part of business development so that it remains stable. Therefore, a possible solution to reduce feed production costs is to conduct research on more economical feed production. Trying to cultivate natural alternative foods by utilizing bollworm larvae (BSF). Black soldier fly caterpillar or larva, black soldier fly is one of the insects whose properties and nutritional content have been widely studied. BSF caterpillars are a good alternative for high-protein livestock with a protein content of up to 40-50%.
Sumbawa is one of the areas with limited feed production capabilities so that the use of BSF flies is an alternative for the availability of high protein feed sources.
“From yesterday’s activities I got a lot of new knowledge both in terms of the environment and entrepreneurship. And what’s even more interesting is that the speakers are really fun, and I’m still in the first semester and already have lots of ideas to do in the future.” Said Khalidan, one of the participants in the Visiting Kendang activity.
