Type: Limited
Year of Founding: 2019
Number of Employees: 4; AgriLife was founded by a team of 4 young individuals with educational backgrounds ranging from entomology, business administration, marketing management and agricultural economics. Costantine Edward leads the team as Managing Director; Herman Edward is the Director of Operations; Grace Emmanuel is the Marketing Manager and Adria Nolasco is the Research & Development (R&D) specialist
CEO: Constantine Edward

Mission: To create a sustainable, nutritious and circular production systems that will positively change the current animal feed industry

Vision: To be the leading company in Africa that provide nutrients for both animals and plants

Business Model

AgriLife is utilising a pioneering waste-to-nutrient technology to convert organic waste into a nutritious animal feed and organic fertilisers. It was created to tackle two main issues: (1) livestock feed is mainly made from fishmeal and soy, whereas their production is very land and water intensive. Soy is being negatively impacted by climate change which leaves farmers with an unreliable supply and Tanzania does not produce enough soya beans, therefore must import from outside the country. Moreover, these inputs have low levels of nutrients and protein in feed accounts for 60% of feed costs; (2) high volumes of organic waste are generated and – due to the lack of necessary infrastructure – often discarded in landfills with large amounts of methane being released thus contributing to greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions.

AgriLife has developed a natural and easily scalable process using black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) to recycle organic waste into a cost-effective alternative for animal feed. Black soldier flies contain high levels of protein and essential amino acids. Meanwhile, the organic fertiliser produced from these processes contains competitive nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) levels which are essential for boosting crop yields and aiding pest resistance. To add to the circularity of the products, the packaging for the feed is 100% home compostable.

AgriLife is a pioneering circular economy company supplying climate smart alternatives to local (smallholder) farmers and producers. It takes only 14 days for AgriLife to convert organic waste into alternative sustainable sources of protein.

Relationship with Smallholders

AgriLife aims to make livestock feed and fertiliser affordable to local farmers. The company sells its livestock feed for $1/kilogram to poultry farmers. The company also works closely with entities generating organic waste to collect the input.

Products and Markets

AgriLife produces livestock feeds and fertilisers.

Innovations: Milestones and Expansion Plans

AgriLife produces livestock feed and fertilizer based on vertical farming techniques to maximize the number of nutrients produced per area. Moreover, the production process does not require any arable land nor water as the BFSL supply the water they need from the recycled fruits and vegetables in their diet.

Since its inception, AgriLife has expanded its circularity approach to all the dimensions of its business activities. A key step has been to use recycled packaging made from upcycled plastic and to convert the rest of the packaging to cardboard.

The target market of AgriLife is to reach 185,000 of the total of 3.7 million poultry farmers in Tanzania. AgriLife aims to expand its customer base by partnering with businesses that generate a lot of organic waste such as restaurants, grocery stores and open-air markets. This waste is then transported to their facilities to be introduced to the black soldier fly larvae, which consumers the waste within two weeks and generates the base of the animal feed and organic fertiliser. The company creates win-win situation where it secures a great source of organic input and offers its customers a way to value their waste.

Success Factors and Lessons Learned

AgriLife is protecting the security of the food chain and promoting sustainable agriculture, contributing to the circular economy and emphasising waste minimisation, diverting organic waste from landfills. The company is reducing CO2 emissions as there is a reduction of 2.94 metric tonnes of CO2 for every tonne of organic waste cycled through BFSL compared to soya bean production that releases 1.65 tonnes of for every hectare produced. AgriLife is also protecting marine biodiversity by reducing the usage of wild fish in fishmeal. Through these actions, the company contributes to meeting several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 2, 12, 13 and 14.

AgriLife is a multi-award winning circular economy company and was among the winners to receive the Impact Award in the Third Annual Generation Africa GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize Competition, in 2021. Recently, Costantine was also featured as a panellist in a session called “Circularity in Africa: Food Systems” from the African Circular Economy Network.

Additional Resources

• AgriLife Business Profile (EN)
• AgriLife Fiche d'Entreprise (FR)