Home » Fertilizers from waste, thanks to flies. The project of a Ugandan startup

Fertilizers from waste, thanks to flies. The project of a Ugandan startup

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Fertilizers from waste, thanks to flies.  The project of a Ugandan startup

Uganda and its cities are confronted every day with uncollected and untreated waste, which pollutes the environment and poses a danger to public health. The country faces low agricultural productivity. And also with very high levels of youth unemployment.

There is a startup that has intercepted these three problems and has grounded a solution that wants to be sustainable and that looks to the Circular Economy. It’s called Marula Proteen, a company founded in 2018 by Tommie Hooft van Huysduynen and Philipp Straub and based in Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

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Marula Proteen is a startup that, through a circular economy process, transforms Kampala’s organic waste into fertilizer with a high nutritional value using black soldier fly larvae. Marula Proteen is also a partner of Waste to Value, an AVSI Foundation project born from the Coopen participatory path dedicated to the circular economy with the support of the Cariplo Foundation and the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation as part of the Innovation for Development program.

Marula (winning project of the “Special Sustainability Award”) is one of the six startups protagonists at the beginning of May of the Startup Africa Roadshow, a program created within Startup Africa Roadtrip, a non-profit project promoted by the BeEntrepreneurs APS Association and co- founded by a group of 9 founding members.

“An investment of at least 500,000 euros would allow us to build a 1,500-square-meter factory that would generate revenue of 100,000 euros per month,” said Joseph Luswabi, the company’s Product Officer, of the roadshow.

Soldier flies to work

The company feeds black soldier fly larvae with organic waste from Kampala’s markets and food processing companies. After a rearing period of 8 days the larvae, which are so rich in protein and fat, can be harvested, dried and the fat extracted. In doing so, the larvae are transformed into protein and fat feed, high quality and affordable feed. The larvae also transform organic waste into a valuable fertilizer.

This process is circular and reduces the costs and greenhouse gas emissions of waste management in Kampala. “We produce sustainable organic feed and high-quality fertilizers with a circular approach, using the larvae of the black soldier fly. With our innovation, we are cleaning cities, feeding millions of people and giving jobs,” explained Tommie Hooft van Huysduynen, Dutch, CEO of the company. “With an average of 27 degrees, the temperature in Uganda is ideal: the larvae multiply rapidly in that heat.”

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The documentary on the coffee value chain

Marula was born like this. Four years ago Tommy was in Uganda to shoot a documentary on the coffee value chain and was shocked by the working conditions of the farmers and the poor quality of the feed used in chicken farming. This prompted him to find a way to help farmers increase their income. Among the possible solutions, the breeding of the black soldier fly was the one that laid the foundations for the birth of the company. “To date, the company can count on a team of 50 young people: 7 take care of administration, 35 of production and 8 of the cultivation program. The team is made up of 60% men and 40% women” . In these four years of activity Marula has received the support of the Kampala Capital City Authority (the city council, also responsible for waste collection), a grant of 70 thousand euros from the Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship and 300 thousand euros from the Dutch Good Growth Fund of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. In addition, “Ugacof, the largest coffee company in Uganda – stresses Tommy – uses our fertilizers. Ugacof is our wholesale buyer of fertilizer”.

3800 tons of waste per day

Without having access to the data and environmental conditions of Kampala, however, it is difficult to get an idea of ​​the context in which Marula was born. “Kampala – explains Joseph Luswabi – generates over 3,800 tons of waste every day, of which only 40% is collected and discharged in its only landfill. This problem costs the government over $ 300,000 every day”. Many farmers “rely on mukene to feed their livestock. Mukene is often mixed with sand. Due to supply constraints, price fluctuations make it difficult for farmers to stay on the market. Lack of access to organic fertilizers. high quality makes it difficult for farmers to increase their productivity. In fact, they pay twice as much for this fertilizer as European or American farmers, and the same fertilizer contains 31% fewer nutrients than indicated. But most of all. Young people in all of Uganda are not inspired to engage in agriculture because incomes are inconsistent and there is a great lack of alternative sources of income. ” His dream? “Create multibillion-dollar businesses especially in the agricultural sector. Travel in Europe and Italy. And, as far as Proteen is concerned, break even this year and increase our production by 10 times compared to the current one.”

Work

In the future – Tommy hopes – we would like to export insect protein or oil to the Netherlands. Furthermore, it is important to create a future perspective for Ugandan youth. In my opinion, there is only one way to do this: by creating jobs. Uganda is ideally placed for agriculture: this country exports coffee, corn and animal feed to neighboring countries. Uganda has the potential to become the region’s granary. “

Kampala green city

“My ambition? I want Kampala to become the greenest city in East Africa by 2025. So a quarter of all organic waste needs to be turned into sustainable protein or fertilizer. To achieve this, we want to set up several small insect facilities. 1 kilometer from the city, close to waste “.

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