Zimbabwean Farmers Turn to Maggot Farming Amidst Drought

Zimbabwean Farmers Turn to Maggot Farming Amidst Drought

• Sustainable Farming Solution
• November 28, 2024

In southeastern Zimbabwe, farmers like Mari Choumumba have adopted maggot farming to combat drought-induced crop failures.

Supported by the Zimbabwean government and USAID, this initiative uses black soldier fly larvae to convert waste into high-protein livestock feed, reducing production costs by approximately 40%.

This sustainable practice also addresses environmental waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

NYANGAMBE, Zimbabwe (AP) — At first, the suggestion to try farming maggots spooked Mari Choumumba and other farmers in Nyangambe, a region in southeastern Zimbabwe where drought wiped out the staple crop of corn.

After multiple cholera outbreaks in the southern African nation resulting from extreme weather and poor sanitation, flies were largely seen as something to exterminate, not breed.

“We were alarmed,” Choumumba said, recalling a community meeting where experts from the government and the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, broached the idea.

People had flocked to the gathering in hope of news about food aid. But many stepped back when told it was about training on farming maggots for animal feed and garden manure.

“People were like, ‘What? These are flies, flies bring cholera’,” Choumumba said.

A year later, the 54-year-old walks with a smile to a smelly cement pit covered by wire mesh where she feeds rotting waste to maggots — her new meal ticket. Read_more