January 11, 2010
Indonesia sees maggots as cheap source of fish feed
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has allocated IDR4.8 billion (US$525,000) this year for the production of maggots as a cheaper source of fish feed.
The maggots can be used as the basis for feed instead of fish flour, which must be imported from Chile at a higher cost.
The ministry plans to build 4,000 small fish food farms in Sumatra and Kalimantan because there are many palm oil plantations in those regions and maggots can be cultivated using a byproduct of palm oil trees.
Made Nurdjana, the ministry's director general of aquaculture, said using maggots as the basis for fish feed could reduce the cost by 50% to IDR3,000 (US$0.33).
In recent months, fish farmers have complained about the high cost of fish feed, saying it was preventing them from expanding their operations.