As Noël plunges a gloved hand into a dark, writhing mass of black soldier-fly larvae, he knows that he is holding a promise for the future. Each of the voracious little creatures wriggling between his fingers is an alchemist, one that takes waste – from chicken droppings to kitchen scraps to agricultural by-products – and turns it into rich fertilizer. 

Setting up Agro-Eco Services, his agribusiness based in southern Benin, wasn’t easy for Noël. His production site wasn’t secure, leading to uncertainty and losses. With a workforce of only five that did everything by hand, production was low and inefficient. And while Noël had technical knowhow thanks to his training as an agricultural engineer, he struggled to connect to markets or access raw materials.