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Conrad Mupesa-Mashonaland West Bureau

Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) is spearheading agricultural technology and innovations in line with the Government’s call for educational institutions, through Education 5.0, to produce graduates who proffer solutions to the country’s problems.

The university has transformed its agro-industrial park on the outskirts of the town towards Harare into a hub where a dairy parlour, cattle breeding and fattening pens have become a symbol of the institution’s agricultural technology and innovation success.

It has ceased to be an educational facility that only offers theory education to students, but a centre of agro-feed and dairy products manufacturing and ensuring that its graduates can move straight into practical employment, having both the knowledge and experience in using it.

Commissioned three years ago by President Mnangagwa, the dairy parlour is producing among other products yoghurts flavoured with indigenous Masau, Baobab and Tamarind, and sour milk.

CUT has also raised its bar in livestock and wildlife animal feed, having managed to establish markets in neighbouring Mozambique and other parts of Southern Africa.

The university’s agro-projects are making progress in producing poultry and fish feed using the black soldier fly.

The feed produced from this source has sustained CUT’s 1,000 layer chickens and fish farming projects.

The fly originated from the Tropical parts of Central America but has become naturalised in many parts of the world.

The Black Soldier Fly (BSF) Project coordinator, Professor Robert Musundire, who is an Associate Professor of Entomology in the Department of Crop Science and Post-Harvest Technology, took The Herald through the entire process recently.

He said CUT was making strides towards having the feed being registered before it is put on the market.

The project has also become a solution to tonnes of organic waste produced by its students and hotel clients.

CUT runs two hotels in the town.

“Many restaurants and households are producing a lot of pre and post consumed organic waste at a rate of 11kg per person per week.

“The black soldier fly degrades this waste at a rate of consumption of six times its weight per day.

“The larvae can quickly devour organic waste on a daily basis to significantly reduce organic waste accumulation.

“The fly has become the potential new generation of animal protein owing to its ability to be farmed on large scale, its capacity to be integrated into organic waste recycling and the attractive nutritional profiles of larvae and the resultant grass or organic manure.

“When reared on nutritious organic substrates, the crude protein can range from 40-60 percent on dry matter basis while the organic manure could have as much as six percent by volume of nitrogen with a good balance of potassium and phosphorus.

“As an institution, we are currently producing 1 tonne of fresh maggots per two-week cycle.

“But we have capacity to increase to 3 tonnes per same period if we have improved transport of organic waste to the production site,” he said.

“We are currently evaluating feed for poultry, fish and rabbits for registration under the Farm Feeds and Fertiliser Act.

Our formulations are already being tested.

Maggots before being turned into feed.

“But currently we are developing feed for our farm animals.

“We have a poultry unit of 1000 indigenous layers on BSF diet and 14 large fish ponds. We produce about 1 tonne of fish feed per week for local use at the farm.”

The BSF project has seen a drastic decline in cost of production for chicken and fish projects that are run by the university.

“The cost of production using BSF feed is 50 percent less on feed for poultry and between 30-40 percent less on feed for fish.

“We envisage the community benefiting more from this project as decline in production levels will have a positive effect on the price of the eggs and meat,” he said.

Layers fed on the feed produce eggs with high intensity of the yellow yolk while fish grow faster.

The university is putting in place modalities to have more organic waste collected from across the town delivered on site to ramp up production ahead of production registration and its subsequent distribution to export markets.

The project dovetails with the efforts by Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (SIRDC) with the support of Korea Programme for Innovation on Agriculture (KOPIA) which is also popularising insect farming to provide a sustainable source of protein for animal feed.

KOPIA Zimbabwe project coordinator, Mrs Yemurai Magaya recently said since poultry was Zimbabwe’s rural homes’ major source of both income and nutrition, there was need for increased production of BSF feed that was less costly in running the projects.

“As such there is a need for farmers to transition from conventional protein sources such as soya meal to alternative insect based protein sources such as black soldier fly larvae,” she said.

The life cycle of this fly begins with each female laying at least 1 000 eggs over its entire lifetime under appropriate temperatures of around 27-33 degrees Celsius, eggs hatch within three to four days.

The new-born larvae feed vigorously to attain a size visible to the eyes within five days.

Rapid growth occurs and vigorous feeding occurs up to day 14 to 16 after eggs hatch.

At around day 18, the larvae or maggots turn dark into pre-pupa and then pupa.

The cycle is completed in about 45 days under fairly warm and humid environmental conditions.

The university this week signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia’s Novosibirsk State Agricultural University which among other things, seeks to enhance agricultural learning, innovations and industrialisations from both institutions.

It hopes to enhance its BSF project from the Russian university which has advanced its production.

Apart from the BSF, Novosibirsk State Agricultural University has, through research and technology, mixed dairy breeds that produce over 15,000 litres of milk per cow yearly.

Speaking after touring CUT’s Agric-Industrial Park, Novosibirsk State Agricultural University Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of Technical Sciences, Vladislav Babin, said they intended to collaborate with the local university in biotechnology, plant production and animal science.

“We also targeting at academic exchange for both students and lecturers in different areas which are of mutual benefits to the two universities,” he said.

CUT Acting Pro Vice Chancellor Innovation, Enterprise Development and Industrialisation Prof Chrispen Murungweni, said the MOU was going to help the Zimbabwe’s education transformation which now required institutions to channel out a graduate who is able to create employment.

“Through research and using our own resources, what we term Heritage-Based Education System, we want to develop our own resources into technology that Zimbabwean can actually benefit from.

“The Russians having the advanced technologies in processing some of these materials that we are going to be using, I think this kind of cooperation is something we were really looking forward to,” he said.

The Russian university delegation also visited Marondera University of Agricultural Science and Technology (MUAST) after having been invited by SATCO Academic executive director, Mrs Aureen Meda.

Her organisation, is an educational recruiting agent that promotes international education for students to study in and outside Zimbabwe.

As part of its contribution, CUT is keen on collaborations critical in enhancing solutions-based education initiatives for the benefit of both the students and the country.