Publications & Research

Sustainable Cultivation of Lemna minor for Alternative Protein Feed Production in Kenya

Authors: Augustine Raila O., Dailyne J. Murei

This paper details the optimization of cultivation parameters for Lemna minor (duckweed) in urban and peri-urban aquatic ecosystems of Nairobi County. Over a 12-month period, we evaluated growth rates, yield, and crude protein composition under varying levels of agricultural runoff enrichment. Our results show that solid-state solar drying coupled with controlled sterilization yields a nutrient-dense feed concentrate (F-DUPA) containing 51.4% crude protein on a dry matter basis. We discuss the implications of scaling these circular agro-milling models to reduce dependency on imported fishmeal and soybean in East Africa.