**6.2 The way forward**

*Innovation in the Food Sector Through the Valorization of Food and Agro-Food By-Products*

exceeding that of soybean and groundnut. Maggots can be harvested, processed into a meal that can be used to substitute or replace fish meal [61, 62]. Maggot grown on a mixture of cattle blood and wheat bran contained 92.7% dry matter, 47.6% crude protein, 25.3% fat, 7.5% crude fiber, 6.25% ash, and an amino acid profile comparable to fish meal [59] suggesting that animal wastes utilization can be used to produce insects which can be utilized as fish feed hence, reduce feed cost significantly, thus leading to a viable and sustainable aquaculture industry. The replacement of 25 percent fishmeal in catfish feed, culture with maggot gave high growth performance and profitability than fishmeal based diet [63, 64]. Several researches [65, 66] have been reporting on the use of red worms, black soldier fly, common housefly, and yellow mealworm as a source of protein to replace fishmeal. It is envisaged that the valorization of animal and animal by-products such as animal blood, offal of poultry, residues of traditional brewery waste, animal manure and fish wastes may contribute significantly on fish production hence, food

It is clear that fish consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa is increasing. In order to maintain the present amount of fish consumption, considerable additional quantities of fish are required through aquaculture. In turn, aquaculture requires feed as a major input for increasing production. Since commercial fish feed production in most of the sub-Saharan countries is limited, considerable investments are required in local and low costs feed manufacturing. Raw materials of plant and animal origin are sufficiently available in the region albeit the possible competition from livestock and human consumption. Therefore, valorisation of animal and agro-products in the Sub-Saharan countries is imperative/inevitable for increasing fish production at low cost.

In order to increase food nutrition from aquaculture production through valorization of agro-by-products in the sub-Saharan countries, the following are

• Strengthen the use of Public Private partnering by putting more emphasis in services related to the collection of feed ingredients and preservation

• Recognize small scale farmers as commercial ones and encourage small-scale

• Provide credit facilities for the private sector particularly for the small-scale

• Put emphasis on public private research partnerships and knowledge sharing

• Provide capacity building and general education for small holders in order to improve their technological, managerial and commercial skills in handling

• Public Private partnering must be embedded into an economic vision for

farmers to work together by forming associations (work groups)

**62**

nutrition and security.

**6.1 Recommendations**

aquaculture development

recommended:

holders

on valorisation

agro by-products

**6. Conclusion**

With the ever-increasing human populations in sub-Saharan countries, the demand for food would increase and natural resources will become even scarcer. This situation will be more worsen with severe climate changes. These trends necessitate for a critical assessment of the situation to enable devise informed solutions in addressing issues pertaining to agro by-product processing and valorization.
