Circular farming approach transforming pig farming in Tanzania

​Today I met with an inspiring Tanzanian farmer, Sarah Mandara Jones, who is transforming pig farming in the Moshi region.
 
She began eight years ago by looking at how she could improve the quality of her pigs, as traditional methods were making no return for farmers locally.
 
She started experimenting with genetics from pigs in Europe and has since developed a prestigious breeding programme, working with a network of 350 smallholder farmers who she supplies piglets to at three months old to be fattened.
 
She guarantees them a market and good price for their finished pigs at six months old, killing and processing them via her on-site abattoir and supplying their meat directly to local lodges in the Northern circuit of Tanzania.
 
Sarah has managed to add real value to the surrounding pig industry, using genetics to produce consistently high quality meat and working with local farming communities to provide a fair and stable Income.
 
She is also revolutionising the animal feed side of the business, having recently started exploring the benefits of insect protein. Her vision is a low-input, no-waste system with manure from the pigs being recycled back as a feed for black soldier fly larvae, which are then grown in small tubs and harvested at three weeks old. The larvae are then blended with bran and fed back to the pigs as part of a high protein diet - an amazing example of circular farming.
 
She explained that the BSF larvae increase in size from 1g to a staggering 5000g in just three weeks. In her current operation she has 12 lines which can hold 160 tubs containing 1kg of larvae. On a daily basis she produces 200kg of feed and 400kg of organic fertiliser.
 
She has conducted trials comparing protein content in soya and BSF larvae and found that there was 20% more protein in the larvae feed, with pigs performing better/growing quicker. 
 
The dream is to keep growing the business but equally to share her methods and journey with others and inspire more farmers to look at this circular approach, and recognise the huge economic, social and environmental benefits it brings.