Butterflies gave me wings to fly around the world

Ordinarily, when you meet a dairy or poultry farmer, unless they are doing something extra ordinary, your reaction is “OK.

another dairy/poultry farmer.” But when you meet a butterfly farmer, you go like “oh beautiful, tell me about it!”. So let’s talk about butterfly farming and its beautiful returns.

Butterfly farming is a fairly new initiative in Kenya and not many farmers have ventured into it. Smart Harvest caught up with a family in Ikuywa village, Shinyalu sub county, Kakamega, doing butterfly farming.

On the day of the interview, Peter Namukana, his wife Margaret Nanjala and son Kennedy Wamalwa are busy cleaning small buckets and stuffing them with leaves.

This spectacular project started in 1991 as a way of encouraging locals to plant more trees to conserve Kakamega Forest, but now it has blossomed into a rewarding venture.

“Back then, I used to work for a white man committed to conservation of forests. He used to give stipend to people who plant trees because it attracted butterflies to his expansive farm. He used to sell the pupae to some people abroad. That is how I came to learn about the project,” says Namukana.

Using his savings, Namukana tried his hand in the project in 2006 but he stopped because of market challenges.

In 2010, he got the much needed breakthrough. “My former employer connected me to some people at the Coast who were ready and willing to buy our butterflies. That’s how I got my big break,” says Namukana.

The market

Now the farmer sells pupae to Arabuko Sokoke Forest (based at the Coast) who later export them to Europe and USA.

“We used to sell them to Kipepeo Project in Gedi but that market is a bit shaky now.”

Butterfly farming entails breeding the pupae for sale to local butterfly exhibits or for export to zoos and live exhibitions overseas. The buyers use it for aesthetic purposes. To the locals, Namukana’s project is a big joke.

“Some people find this business a joke but it has good returns compared to maize farming,” he says.
Namukana says butterfly farming has opened numerous doors for him. Kipepeo Project, which is one of the big players in butterfly farming, gave him an award for being one of the best butterfly farmers in Kenya, a title he has held for long.

“These butterflies have opened for me global doors. Kipepeo Project has sponsored me to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Senegal and other nations to learn about butterflies. In my travels I have learnt the types of butterflies, how to feed them, the best type of feed, how to clean their habitat and breeding,” he says.
Namukana sells active pupae for Sh70 and Sh45 for inactive one.
He started this venture with 15 butterflies but now he has more than 200 butterflies of Papilio species which thrives in tropical climate.
Nanjala explains that a butterfly lays around 250-300 eggs depending on species.
“We have salamis butterflies that could lay up to 1,000 eggs while Montrose lay around 200 to 300 eggs. In two months, I can have more than 2,000 pupae. Each species eats a specific plant. Others feed on red flowers while others on purple and so on,” she said.
So what does it take to start a butterfly farm?
“First, as long as you are hardworking and dedicated, you will make it. Next is a licence from Kenya Wildlife Service,” he says. Before they give you a go-ahead, KWS staff will visit your farm to check if you have capacity and technical knowhow to rear the creatures.

What it entails

A farmer also needs to construct a structure for rearing the insects, grow feeding plants in the structure and feed them regularly. “The structure needs to be well ventilated, its temperature well controlled and enclosed so that the butterflies do not escape. You also need places for feeding. For us, we have erected stools with plates where we put a sugar and sometimes ripe mangos. Butterflies feed on nectar or sugary food to thrive,” he says.

He continues, “You also need plants that will serve as main source of food and other plants where they will lay their eggs. When you want them to lay eggs from the farm, we usually put them in buckets and they fed twice a day.”

Butterflies are usually hunted in forests and once they have been captured and released in the farm, they are left to mate with male ones and start to lay eggs mostly after 9 days.

“The eggs are then collected and taken to breeding room. The room needs to be warm for faster development. After one week they hatch into caterpillars,” Nanjala explains.

The caterpillars are placed on new plants, which must be regularly replenished because the creatures are heavy feeders. They feed until they fully develop into pupae.

“During this period, you need to keep highest level of cleanliness because they can easily contract diseases. You need to clean the buckets, change the plants regularly for better results,” says Nanjala.

During hot seasons, it takes nine days for the caterpillar to develop into pupae but in cold weather it takes 14 days.

“Caterpillar develops in four stages. It develops into pupae in the fourth stage and that’s when we take them to Arabuko Sosoke. I can harvest almost 2,000 pupae in a month which translates to Sh140,000,” she says.

“Apart from selling the pupae, fully grown butterflies are also a tourist attraction. Tourists come from all over to see our butterfly farms. We have a contract with Moonlight Hotel in Kisumu that usually brings us their visitors. We charge each visitor Sh200,” she says.

Promising as butterfly farming maybe, Namukana says it has some thorns.

“During hot seasons, it’s hard to get butterflies. The cost of transferring the pupae to Coast is also too high. It consumes almost half the profits,” he observes.

He continues: “Sometimes we are forced to tell our clients not to come because we lack butterflies. If we could have finances and frequent supply of butterflies in our farm we could be better off. This could be the one of the biggest tourist attraction for this county.”