Cultivation Of Maggots: Apart From Overcoming Waste Problems, It Is Also Economically Valuable

Workers carry out a Maggot cultivation process (larvage fly Black Soldier Fly) at Taman Safari Indonesia (TSI), Cisarua, Bogor Regency, West Java. Thursday (3/8/2023). (Between/Arif Firmansyah)

JAKARTA - Maggot cultivation businesses run by residents of RW 14, Mangunjaya Village, South Tambun District, Bekasi Regency, West Java are considered capable of helping local governments overcome waste problems while at the same time bringing economic value to residents.

Maggot Mangunjaya cultivator, Sarwodi Cikarang, Tuesday, said that in the neighborhood where he lives there are three maggot cultivators or 'Black Soldier Fly' fly larvae with economic value at a selling price of IDR 6,000 per kilogram of wet maggots and IDR 8,000 dry maggots.

"The opportunity for the Maggot cultivation business is actually good, but there are indeed many who have not looked because when you talk about this garbage, it is still identical to dirty, odor, and carries disease. Even though it is not, the BSF fly is different from the ordinary type of fly because the larvae produced are not larvae that become the medium of disease transmission," he said as quoted by Antara.

The member of the South Tambun District Garbage Bank Forum said that in addition to having economic value, this cultivation can also be a solution to reduce organic waste because BSF larvae require organic waste to grow until it is ready to be harvested.

"So we work together with local residents to collect organic waste such as fruit and vegetables. Then we also cooperate with catering companies to meet the needs of maggot feed," he said.

Sarwo admitted that so far many collectors have come to buy the magazines produced. However, due to limited land availability, the magnitudes produced temporarily are still being marketed on a small scale.

"Once the harvest can reach 60 kilograms and it has been used (buyed) for food for residents' livestock. If the results are abundant, we dry them, sell them in packaging to a shop selling poultry and fish feed around us with a trading deposit system," he said.

Bekasi Regent Dani Ramdan said he continued to encourage the RW environment to carry out similar cultivation. As long as there is land, the Bekasi Regency Government is ready to distribute aid in the form of training, making house maggots, and providing seeds.

"This is what we continue to encourage, we continue to socialize so that this cultivation will continue to grow, more and wider to all sub-districts, villages, to the RT and RW levels in the Bekasi Regency area," he said.

According to him, the cultivation of BSF larvae is highly recommended in order to reduce the accumulation of waste in the Burangkeng TPA which is already overcapacity. He appealed to the community to cultivate maggots so that the garbage around the house does not accumulate in the TPA.

"In addition to being able to reduce organic waste from households, if it is occupied and managed properly, Beard culture is also a promising business opportunity. In Bekasi Regency there are many groups of people who cultivate maggots. Of course, we appreciate it because it helps us reduce the accumulation of organic waste," he said.