Money From Larva Of Black Soldier Fly

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 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 $0.55 cents) a kilo.

First Of Its Kind - Opened in March with a $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.

It is owned and operated by the women, all members of a "Sisters Group" in Bhardev, a small village with a population of about 2,500 people, 30 km (19 miles) south of the capital.

Nepal is among the world’s ten poorest countries, and people in villages are mainly subsistence farmers. The economic condition of women is especially vulnerable, with no extra source of income or employment other than on their tiny family farms.

The average salary of civil servants in Nepal is barely about $300 a month, so the money to be made from fly larvae is clearly a step forward from the village women.

They expect to be harvesting 3,500 kg of larvae in one production cycle, which ranges between 45 and 60 days.