Booming business for egg farmer as human waste does the trick

Kenyan farmer Victor Kyalo's chickens have doubled the number of eggs they are laying. The reason: Human excrement.

He is feeding them food from a Nairobi-based organics recycling company. Sanergy harvests waste from toilets it operates in a franchise network in Nairobi's slums and feeds it to fly larvae, which become high-quality animal feed.

Kyalo says his customers have noticed the difference in the past three weeks: yellower yolks and larger eggs. "Before, we were getting like five trays (of eggs) per day, but now we are getting 10," he says. "It’s kind of perfect for me."

HARVESTING INSECTS

As the world looks to feed 10 billion mouths by 2050, businesses harvesting insects — either for human consumption or as animal feed — are growing. They promote themselves as a greener alternative to traditional feed such as soybeans, whose cultivation can lead to deforestation and the overuse of farm chemicals.

Fast food giant McDonald’s and US agricultural powerhouse Cargill Inc are among many large companies studying the use of insects for chicken feed to reduce reliance on soy protein in the $400 billion-a-year animal feed business.

By 2023 the global edible insect market could triple to $1.2 billion (Sh122.4 billion) from current levels, market research firm Meticulous Research said last year.

In developing countries like Kenya, where the World Bank says nearly two-thirds of urbanites live in slums, feeding waste to fly larvae could solve both sanitation and nutrition problems.

WASTE

Waste from more than two-thirds of Nairobi's inhabitants go untreated because the toilets are not enough. Many others are not cleaned regularly, Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company says.

During the rains, they often overflow, polluting local waterways. That can make workers ill. Days off slow Kenya’s economy by around one per cent annually, the Health ministry says.

David Auerbach co-founded Sanergy eight years ago to deal with sanitation. The waste management franchise provides more than 2,500 toilets to 100,000 people daily.

Lilian Mbusia runs one of Sanergy's franchises, charging residents of Mukuru Kwa Ruben slum Sh5 to use her blue "Fresh Life" toilets.

Nestled beneath her squat-toilets are small blue barrels that, once full, are sealed and taken to an organics recycling factory in Machakos County, a bumpy 40-minute drive outside the city.

Beds of writhing black soldier fly larvae feast on a mix of excrement and food waste from hotels and agribusinesses. That produces two products for farmers: fertiliser and animal feed.

LARVAE

In 10 days, the larvae munch their way through 70 per cent of the waste, leaving behind a manure laden with nitrogen and calcium, which becomes organic fertiliser.

Once the recycling plant is expanded later this year, Auerbach says it will provide 400 tonnes of fertiliser. Larvae production will ratchet up from seven tonnes to 300 tonnes per month.

"Right now we are receiving equity debt, and grant investment to scale up operations," Auerbach says. "We're on track for profitability by the end of 2020."

KILL PATHOGENS

The plump, white larvae are boiled in hot water to kill off pathogens, Michael Lwoyelo, managing director of Sanergy, says.

The larvae are then sold to animal feed millers, who grind them into powder mixed with other ingredients to create a balanced diet for poultry, pigs and fish.

Frederick Wangombe, an animal nutritionist at Unifeed, a Kenyan animal feed miller that uses Sanergy's black soldier fly product, envisages it replacing fish meal from Lake Victoria, which can contain sand and other impurities, or expensive soy beans from Zambia. "The egg farmer doesn't want to know what's in the feed, they want to know the performance," he says.