By Emem Idio

With the high cost of livestock feeds and other essentials, the increasing need for alternatives where waste materials agricultural byproducts, and organic refuse are transformed into rich livestock and fisheries feeds has become imperative.

To this end, the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprise in Niger Delta Project (LIFE-ND) a Federal Government of Nigeria, Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC and International Fund for Agriculture IFAD, assisted project, has advocated the farming of the Black Soldier Fly, BSF, as a good alternative for protein in livestock feeds.

In her speech at the”Train the Trainers Production and Processing Waste Management and Valorization of LIFE-ND Agricultural Enterprises Workshop in Port Harcourt Rivers State, the LIFE-ND National Environment and Climate Change Specialist, ,Bemigho Wategire said the stated that aim of the workshop is to drive the narrative that nothing is a waste from production to processing in line with the goal of the project, which she noted is to make sure that the youth have their own businesses to bring them out of poverty and joblessness.

She said: “We are doing a training of trainers on waste management and also improving the livelihood from waste.. We are of the opinion that nothing is a waste. In the circular economy from production down to processing , whatever byproduct comes out we can convert it to wealth.

“So the whole process of this training is to convert waste to wealth. Right now we are at Black Soldier Fly(BSF) farm for lavae production. This initiative is a good alternative and a good addition for feed for poultry and for fisheries, that is why we are doing it for our beneficiaries because the price of feeds have gone high and our people are going out of business.

“So we are looking for alternatives that would also improve their business and quality of meat that they would be selling and improve their pocket. That is why we are here today for this lavae production, so that we can go back to our offices and train our beneficiaries on it.”

Explaining the process involved in Black Soldier Fly farming, the CEO More Ahead Integrated Farms, Mrs Becky Jacobs popularly known as “Maggot Jagaban”, described BSF as a harmless and non disease carrying fly goes through breeding to adulthood, hatch their eggs, and the larvae is allowed to consume decomposing waste before harvesting the nutrient-dense grubs for livestock or aquaculture.

Two other Environment and Climate Change Specialists, Mrs Edidiong Wilson from Akwa Ibom State and Dr Ikona Eteng Lakam from Cross River State ,said they were now well equipped to take the message of waste to wealth to their immediate environment.

Participants at the workshop were drawn from the nine states of the Niger Delta, including Edo, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Bayelsa, Imo, Ondo and Abia states.