Fly larvae breeds success for Nepali women

Women can earn money drying and processing black soldier fly eggs into feed for fish, chicken and pigs at ‘model green business’ fly farm

The innovative operation, owned and operated by village women through a grant from Finland via a Nepalese charity, is likely to expand to other areas

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Mana Maya Shrestha, 47, collects fly eggs at a farm run by seven women in a village in Nepal. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:33pm, 25 Aug 2023Updated: 5:44pm, 25 Aug 2023

In a village a little over an hour’s drive from Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu, six women wearing yellow rubber gloves and surgical masks work in a shed, gently squeezing the wet larvae of the black soldier fly into small plastic containers.

Another woman slices pears and wilted vegetables to feed the insects, known more commonly as BSF, that are held in two plastic cages equipped with thermal panels for artificial light and heat to maintain the required temperature inside the tin-roofed 74-square-metre (800-square-foot) shed.

The protein-rich insect eggs are dried and processed into feed for fish, chicken and pigs, and will sell at 70 Nepali rupees (about US$0.55) a kilo.

Opened in March with a US$110,000 grant provided by the Women’s Bank, Finland, through the charity Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal, the fly farm is billed as the first of its kind in the Himalayan nation.

Sita Tamang, Sharmila Tamang, Mana Maya Shrestha, Kamala Shrestha, Gita Shrestha, Samjhana Shrestha and Bina Kumari Shrestha pose for a group photo at their fly farm in Nepal. Photo: Reuters

It is owned and operated by the women, all members of a so-called “sisters group” in Bhardev, a small village with a population of about 2,500 people, 30km (19 miles) south of the capital.