Development of an enhanced insect frass biofertilizer through exoskeleton by-product addition

Oberland Agriscience是一个可持续发展的黑人士兵苍蝇室内农场，以工业规模饲养昆虫。黑兵蝇幼虫的生产是独特的，因为昆虫饲养过程的每一个元素都能产生潜在的可销售产品：幼虫（丰富的蛋白质和钙来源）、草（粪便）、壳（蜕皮期间脱落的外骨骼）和死的成年苍蝇。目前，Oberland Agriscience正在销售它们的幼虫作为蛋白粉补充剂，它们的昆虫残渣作为生物肥料，该公司正在探索如何最好地利用外骨骼。幼虫和死去的成年苍蝇的外骨骼含有几丁质，这是一种聚合物，可以促进作物生长，减轻作物胁迫。这种副产品的一个潜在用途是将外骨骼添加到昆虫草生物肥料中。甲壳素增强草的组合可以提高作物效益，而不仅仅是单独的虫草，创造一个优越的虫草生物肥料产品。然而，目前尚不清楚将这些外骨骼添加到昆虫草中是否能提高作物产量，减少作物胁迫损害，并提供比单独使用草或合成肥料更大的其他环境效益。因此，Oberland Agriscience正在寻求与新斯科舍省社区学院合作，调查以下目标：1)确定与单独使用草叶和/或合成肥料相比，添加外骨骼到虫粪中是否能促进作物生长并减少霜冻损害；2)检查添加外骨骼到虫粪中是否比单独使用草叶和/或合成肥料减少养分淋失；3)测试添加到虫粪中不同数量的副产品，以创建最佳配方。预期的结果将为Oberland Agriscience提供关键信息，通过添加其他副产品来创造优质的生物肥料，降低处理成本。这将减少进入垃圾填埋场的昆虫副产品，同时提高有霜冻风险的种植区的产量。此外，国家生产商越来越多地采用这种增效生物肥料，将减少对合成肥料的依赖，并减少加拿大各地农业系统向水生生态系统渗透的营养物质。

Oberland Agriscience is a sustainable black soldier fly indoor farm, rearing insects on an industrial scale. Black soldier fly larvae production is unique in that every element of the insect rearing process yields a potential saleable product: larvae (rich source of protein and calcium), frass (excrement), shells (exoskeletons cast off during molting) and dead adult flies. Currently, Oberland Agriscience is selling their larvae as a protein powder supplement and their insect frass as a biofertilizer, with the company exploring how to best use the exoskeletons. Exoskeletons from the larvae and dead adult flies contain chitin, which is a polymer known to improve crop growth and mitigate crop stress. One potential use of this byproduct is adding the exoskeletons to the insect frass biofertilizer. The combination of chitin augmented frass may enhance crop benefits more than just insect frass alone, creating a superior insect frass biofertilizer product. However, it is unclear whether adding these exoskeletons to insect frass enhances crop yield, reduces crop stress damage, and offers other environmental benefits greater than just frass alone or synthetic fertilizer. As a result, Oberland Agriscience is looking to partner with Nova Scotia Community College to investigate the following objectives: 1) Determine if exoskeleton addition to insect frass enhances crop growth and reduces frost damage compared to frass and/or synthetic fertilizer alone, 2) Examine if exoskeleton addition to insect frass reduces nutrient leaching than frass and/or synthetic fertilizer alone, and 3) Test varying quantities of the byproduct being added to the insect frass to create the optimal formulation. Anticipated results will provide Oberland Agriscience critical information that will create a superior biofertilizer through the addition of other byproducts, reducing disposal costs. Together this will result in less insect byproduct entering landfills, while leading to increased yields in growing areas at risk of frost. In addition, the increased adoption this enhanced biofertilizer by national producers will reduce dependence on synthetic fertilizer and decrease nutrients being leached from agricultural systems to aquatic ecosystems across Canada.