By MaryAnne Musilo

Dan Odhiambo is farming black soldier flies (BSF) as fish feed and starter stock for other farmers, as well as for chicken feed, expanding the uses and extra income from breeding the flies.

“We started farming BSF for we wanted to get our poultry and fish feeds rich in protein,” said Dan, who farms catfish at the MarinBio Farm in Kinoo.

He began with a small setup that cost around Sh15,000.

“Bsf farming doesn’t need a lot of capital. I started small with the whole set up of breeding cage, netting, hatching containers and bins filled with organic waste larvae to grow costing around Sh15000,” he said.

The larvae are rich in essential amino acids, containing up to 45% protein, making them excellent feed for poultry, fish, and pigs.

“We take chicken waste or any organic waste, ferment it for like two weeks to get larvae, the larvae grows to pupal then to adults stage of the bsf. The flies with a life span of 42 days, lays eggs to continue with the race,” he said.

Farming BSF has many benefits. The larvae consume waste and produce frass, which is an organic fertilizer.

“The frass helps in soil enrichment. We sell it at Sh40 a kilo. It is also used to make folia by dissolving the Frass in water,” he said.

According to Dan, there is a ready market, especially for the larvae.

“When the larvae starts turning into a dark color, that’s when we sell to farmers at Sh600 a kilo of live/wet larvae, dried larvae goes for Sh500/kilo. For a starter stock Larvae/pupa we sell at Sh2500 a kilo,” said Dan.

“Farmers use soya meals and fish meals as a source of protein and for small scale farmers it is costly compared to bsf larvae.”

The adult black soldier flies don’t eat; they live off the fat stored from their larval stage.

“We use net shade, good enough to allow aeration and light through. The flies don’t bite, spread diseases, or invade homes. They only live off water. Small water we soak sponges or cotton wool to prevent them from drowning,” he said.

The pupae stay dormant for a while before evolving into adults. Black soldier flies lay eggs before they die, and the cycle continues.

MarinBio Farm trains farmers in BSF farming and also sells the larvae. Interested farmers can contact them via 0725923248.