13/03/2009 (Canada.com) - Dirt-poor peasants in the tropics could be thrown an economic lifeline after a lucky discovery by French scientists that takes advantage of a useless palm oil by-product and the lowly maggot.

The synergy of two otherwise nuisance agents produced a virtually cost-free feed for farmed fish while reducing a pungent source of pollution -- a potential boon in countries like Indonesia, one of the world's largest palm oil producers.

After an IRD team stumbled onto the discovery they perfected the technique with partners from Indonesia, which churns out almost 2.3 million tonnes of palm oil a year.

The unlikely players in this small miracle are the tiny, squirming larvae reviled the world over -- maggots -- and a by-product from an industry in tropical Africa and Southeast Asia that is often maligned by environmentalists opposed to the expansion of plantations into rainforests and other delicate habitats.

Palm oil production generates millions of tonnes of biomass called palm kernel meal that can foul nearby waters and produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas.