Dr. Dennis Beesigamukama
UGANDA
Dr. Dennis Beesigamukama, Postdoctoral Fellow at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), has been named the 2024 Recipient of the Norman E. Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, endowed by The Rockefeller Foundation. He is recognized for spearheading the development of novel, low-cost technologies for recycling organic waste into nutrient-rich, disease- and pest-resistant, insect-composted organic fertilizers within a fraction of the time it takes to produce other organic fertilizers, addressing agricultural soil degradation challenges for over 100,000 farmers in East Africa and beyond.
Beesigamukama comes from a farming family in Southwestern Uganda. His early exposure to the challenges of rural agriculture and soil degradation fueled his passion for soil science, which led him to Makerere University, where he earned his B.Sc. in agricultural land use and management and his M.Sc. in soil science. His thesis research on composting water hyacinth weed into organic fertilizer for managing the highly weathered soils in Central Uganda showed him the great need for affordable, locally produced fertilizers. The need for local solutions to soil fertility has only grown in recent years, with escalating costs and unavailability of synthetic fertilizers due to disruptions in supply chains caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
In 2017, Beesigamukama began his Ph.D. at Kenyatta University, working with icipe to research the development of insect-based compost for sustainable soil health management and crop productivity. He used black soldier fly larvae, a common edible insect raised for animal feed, to recycle organic waste into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer made from the insects’ frass, or shed skins and feces. By doing this, he expedited the natural composting process to yield nutrient-rich fertilizer in just five weeks, in contrast to the usual methods, which require six months.
His research also demonstrated insect-composted organic fertilizer had a higher nutrient content than commercial organic fertilizers, animal manure and plant-based compost. In comparison to commercial fertilizers, he showed insect-based fertilizers could significantly increase yields of major grain and vegetable crops, including maize, amaranth, tomatoes and beans.
This offered a game-changing solution to the problem of low-quality, expensive fertilizer with long production times while also transforming waste into climate-smart, organic soil inputs for agricultural production. With its population growing, the amount of waste generated in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to triple by 2050, with over 40 percent of waste being organic. In addition, 40 percent of the continent’s soils are deficient in nutrients required for crop production and continue to lose USD 4 billion worth of soil nutrients each year. This makes Beesigamukama’s work in recycling organic waste into improving food security and environmental outcomes all the more vital.
Beesigamukama began experimenting with low-cost technologies to formulate a variety of fertilizer products using the insect-composted method. He led the creation of more than ten of these products, including powdered, liquid, granulated and chitin-fortified formulations for a variety of uses, soils and cropping systems. His creative approach resulted in a new type of pest- and disease-resistant fertilizer by incorporating chitin, a component found in insect exoskeletons that has naturally pesticidal and antimicrobial properties. He found that fertilizers fortified with chitin suppressed key fungal and bacterial plant diseases, as well as nematodes and insect pests such as fall armyworm.
Beesigamukama recognized that because insect-composted fertilizers have these advantages, they have great potential to increase profitability for farmers and local businesses. His further research showed that using insect-based fertilizers reduced input costs to farmers by 50 percent and generated profits at least 30 percent higher than the use of synthetic fertilizer. With his team, he created training and demonstration facilities where they have trained over 2,300 organic fertilizer manufacturers and traders and over 100,000 farmers in insect-composted fertilizer production and application for improving soil health and crop productivity across East Africa and beyond.
With technical support from Beesigamukama, Kenyan organic fertilizer companies like Safi Organics Ltd have transitioned from conventional fertilizer production to these formulations, and have found increased market competitiveness and profit margins as a result. Today, at least 10 percent of commercial organic fertilizers used in Kenya are derived from black soldier fly frass. Farmers using these fertilizers have seen a 30 percent increase in crop yields and a 50 percent increase in income.
Taking the next step forward to scale up the technology, Beesigamukama collaborates with the African Union’s African Organisation for Standardisation to revise organic fertilizer standards to include insect-based fertilizers. This will enable its certification, paving the way to integration of insect-based fertilizers into Africa’s agriculture sector and continent-wide trade.
Since graduating with his Ph.D. in 2021, Beesigamukama has continued at icipe to pursue new dimensions of his research on insect-composted fertilizers, including establishing the nutrient content of fertilizers created using eight other edible insect species. He is dedicated to building the capacity of other young researchers, supervising postgraduate students on their research related to insect-based fertilizers. He and his team have established partnerships with more than 60 public and private organizations on four continents to conduct cutting-edge research to harness and scale up the benefits of insect-based fertilizers and establish good practices.
With Borlaug-like tenacity, Beesigamukama pursues research and develops technologies from small insects that are having a big impact for farmers, climate, and food security.
