Nahid Hossain, a disabled entrepreneur at Lohachura village in Raninagar upazila, Naogaon, has drawn attention by farming black soldier flies as an alternative fish feed. The first in his area to do so, he feeds the larvae to the fish in his own pond and earns Tk 20,000 to 25,000 a month selling the surplus, BSS reports.
The technology turns waste into feed. The insects are raised on rotting waste from homes, hotels and markets and need no other food; the larvae eat any organic waste, so they also help with waste management and composting. In a well-lit, airy room the adult flies lay eggs in layers of wood; after hatching, the larvae are moved and raised, reaching feeding size in five stages over 15 to 16 days.
With technical support from PKSF's SMART project, the local development organisation Mousumi helped Nahid set up the farm. He said he took a Tk 100,000 loan from Mousumi in October 2025 and started small with help from the SMART pisciculture sub-project, then expanded with a Tk 50,000 grant from the SMART project in February 2026. The farm now employs two people.
By his account, a kilo of larvae costs about Tk 65 to produce and sells for Tk 250 to 270, and the farm produces 400 to 500 kilos a month. Small and medium farms are springing up in the area following his example, and locals call him Black Soldier Nahid.
Palash Chandra Debnath, senior upazila fisheries officer in Raninagar, said black soldier flies are becoming popular worldwide as an alternative protein for fish farming, and that Nahid's fish have grown faster while his feed costs fell. Dried larvae can contain up to 50 percent protein, he said, and the upazila fisheries office is advising such ventures.
Photo: Didier Descouens / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: BSS
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