• Social Innovation Fellowship
Viraj
Sikand

Concentration 

Environmental Science

Award Year 

2016
Kulisha

Kenya
Kulisha aims to revolutionize fish feed. While the global aquaculture industry is booming and increasing food security, conventional fish feed for these aquaculture farms is sourced through unsustainable ocean fishing practices that destroy marine habitat and harm local communities. Kulisha, named after the Swahili verb “to feed,” will partner with communities in Kenya to produce a low-cost, high-quality fish feed made from insects.

Website

Ever since I was a little child, I would visit my grandparents home in a beautiful fishing village off the coast of Kenya called Msambweni. This village has gone through tremendous change in the past 3 years, however. Now, commercial fishing vessels drop weighted nets on the coral reefs, capturing everything and causing immense damage to the environment and the community. These vessels are fishing for anchovies, small fish that can be ground up into a fish meal and sold at high prices to aquaculture farms inland. It's a system that's problematic in many ways. Our venture will provide an alternative to this by sourcing organic waste and growing insects from it, creating a high protein, innovative feed for fish farmers throughout the country. In doing so, we not only have a chance to end the destruction facing rural coastal communities, but can also work towards addressing the major sanitation issue of organic waste in Kenya.