Black Soldier Fly Farming: Maggots Cleaning up Food Waste

Black soldier fly (BSF) farming - maggots ready to sell off

There is a plenty of food waste lying domant on landfills in Africa. Considering that a number of people are digusted by maggots (black soldier fly larvae), if you are brave enough, this is such an open market with little to no competition at all just for you to make money.

Black Soldier farm in Kenya

Here is an investor making money from farming black soldier flies larvae in Kenya. Below the video are key points that the investor makes and agricultural experts make:

Key points:

• Black Soldier fly (BSF) is an insect used to recycle food waste.
• Cost of feed for poultry and fish is high particularly protein being very expensive. BSF is very rich in protein content. 900 edible insects in Africa. Insects are considered as an alternative to the expensive animal feeds.
• BSF contains up to 50 percent protein, 35 percent lipids and amino acide profile similar to fishmeal
• BSF is useful for protein meal, biofertilizers, whole dried larvae, larvae oil, chitin/chitosan or waste composting
• BSF insect larvae feed on food waste that is collected from surrounding landfills 
• BSF temperaturs range between 28-30 degrees Celcius.
• At the farm, strategy is to take 20 percent of BSF larvae back to the colony to mate and produce more egges, while 80 percent is sold off to feed processors as poulty and fish feed.
• BSF Market is huge with current market demand outweighing supply.
• BSF has potential to create over 50,000 jobs.
• BSF Challenges include: limited funding, space to expand existing farm, locating food waste and collecting it including labour costs. 
• BSF Opportunity is huge: 
• BSF doesnt require so much space/funding, 
• Increasing demand that cannot be satisfied with existing supply. 
• protein is a scare commodity in sub-saharan Africa making BSF one of unique farming methods to provide it.
• If you consider BSF, you should get trained first in the best practices, just like the Kenyan investor did get trained in Netherlands. As young farmer, you can contact your local agricultural office for nearby places or farms where you can easily get the necessary training.

In conclusion, setting up BSF is a feasible and doest not require huge initial capital. Food waste is an abundant commodity in many places in africa. Once you gain the necessary BSF training to avoid common mistakes, you will be well on the way to generating income from your agribusiness. 

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