Waste to Wealth: Using innovative gender-responsive business models to turn organic market waste into organic fertiliser and animal feeds (WAWE) [WST-24-007]

Rationale

In the urban markets of Nairobi and Kiambu in Kenya, and Soroti in Uganda up to 40% of fruits and vegetables are wasted, reaching 60% during the rainy seasons. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 174 million tons of organic waste are produced annually, predominantly disposed-off in landfills and open dumps where it decomposes anaerobically, releasing methane.

This inefficient waste management not contributes to environmental degradation and global warming through GHG emissions but also impacts human health due to the unpleasant odors and potential contaminations at disposal sites. These issues cause economic losses across the agricultural value chain and degrade the quality of life for local communities.

Moreover, the extensive use of inorganic fertilizers in these regions compromises soil fertility by harming organic matter, increasing acidity, and reducing microbial diversity, which in turn lowers air and water quality and diminishes crop yields. There is also a pressing issue with the low availability and high cost of animal feed, particularly protein, which affects livestock productivity adversely.

Currently, 75% of market waste in these countries is biodegradable,
but there's a notable deficiency in technical expertise for waste separation, recycling, and the commercialisation of sustainable products generated from the process.

Developing products from market waste necessitates extensive research, particularly in validating and standardising valorisation products from SMEs in the recycling sector. Ensuring feed safety and establishing rigorous safety procedures are critical, yet often overlooked by SMEs. Furthermore, both Kenya and Uganda lack comprehensive policies, frameworks and guidelines for managing, recycling, and reusing market biowastes. 

Objectives

The project promotes regenerative practices to address these challenges, advocating for the conversion of organic waste into valuable products like biofertiliser and animal feed, thus supporting a circular food economy.

It also explores sustainable alternatives such as cultivating black soldier fly (BSF) larvae to create a viable protein source for animal feed, which could substantially lower feed costs and environmental impacts. 

Specifically the project aims to: 

• Enable government authorities and sector stakeholders to adopt an organic waste SLCP mitigation approach
• Equip stakeholders with the relevant knowledge and/or
  capacity to implement the organic waste SLCP mitigation approach
• Identify funding sources to implement the organic waste SLCP
  mitigation approach at scale

Activities 

To achieve these objectives the project will:

• Conduct baseline survey, monitoring and
  evaluation and learning (MEL) studies, and impact
  assessment studies in Kenya
  and Uganda project sites
• Develop research activities on major technical, biophysical, socio-economic and policy barriers of market bio-waste
• Conduct workshops to co-develop  gender responsive and market-oriented biowaste recycling business models
• Design innovations on waste recycling to produce
  organic fertilizer and animal feed (BSF, vermicomposting, windrow composting) in the project locations
• Organize stakeholder workshops to support the implementation of the business models
• Collect qualitative data to understand the gendered barriers towards sustainable and equitable waste management system
• Set up and implement market bio-waste recycling business models in the three project locations to produce organic fertilizer and animal feed
• Conduct lab analysis of the produced organic fertilizers and soil tests
• Conduct advocacy workshops and policy dialogues for waste
  management
• Conduct capacity development in waste recycling among key stakeholders 
• Develop an inclusive knowledge hub on bio-waste recycling 
• Develop an ICT platform for waste management developed
• Organise a scaling-up workshop with local policy makers and global experts on market bio-waste recycling
• Organize mini- conferences, webinars and workshops to share project outputs and identify areas of
• Identify additional partnerships with the private
  sector, governments and initiatives form the CGIAR and other international organisations

Project Reference:  Waste to Wealth: Using innovative gender-responsive business models to turn organic market waste into organic fertiliser and animal feeds (WAWE) - [APP-24-387]