Diana Orembe transforms organic waste into sustainable protein, tackling food insecurity, climate change, and aquaculture costs.
Diana Orembe grew up in a small village in Northern Tanzania, where fish was more than food but her family’s livelihood. Her mother worked as a fish vendor, while her uncle managed a small fish farm. These early experiences exposed her to the importance of fisheries in local communities and also to the challenges hidden beneath them.
She witnessed firsthand how costly and unsustainable fish feed could cripple small farmers, and she also witnessed the constant piles of rotting food waste in markets, attracting pests, polluting waterways, and contributing to environmental hazards. For most people, these were two separate problems. For Diana Orembe, it all boiled down to one question: how can waste be transformed into something useful while making food systems more sustainable?
With a background in microbiology and exposure to circular economy principles during her university years, Orembe began to connect science to the problems she had grown up observing. In 2020, alongside Mr. Otaigo, she officially founded NovFeed, a biotechnology company based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
The company developed a proprietary, chemical-free technology that uses microbes and industrial biotechnology to ferment organic waste into a bacteria-based protein product. This innovation addresses two pressing issues in Tanzania: the country’s daily production of roughly 9,000 metric tons of organic waste, much of which ends up in landfills, and the annual protein ingredient supply gap for animal feed, estimated at 244,000 metric tons.
Results that speak volumes
The results of NovFeed’s process are striking. The protein ingredient it produces is non-GMO, toxin-free, and traceable. It costs about 30 per cent less than conventional protein feeds, such as fishmeal and soy concentrates, and releases 80 per cent fewer carbon emissions compared to traditional methods. Alongside protein, the company also produces nutrient-rich organic fertilisers from the same waste streams, reinforcing a circular economy model that reduces environmental pollution while providing valuable agricultural inputs.
NovFeed supplies feed to dozens of fish farmers monthly and has contracts with feed millers in Tanzania. The company makes aquaculture more accessible to smallholder farmers, who can improve yields, increase income, and contribute to local food security. NovFeed processes about 40kg of organic waste, which in turn produces 10kg of fish feed. The company currently produces 40,000 litres of fertiliser a year and 3 tonnes a month of fish feed.
They have impacted over 5000 farmers with 60 distributors spread across
20 regions. Beyond easing pressure on landfills, NovFeed’s effort also reduces reliance on ocean-sourced fishmeal, thereby conserving marine ecosystems, and lowers dependence on soy, which drives deforestation and heavy land use.
Diana’s work has not gone unnoticed. She was part of the 2020 WFP-X Moonshot Launchpad Programme, which focused on building sustainable food systems for megacities. Her leadership at NovFeed has earned the company a series of international awards, including the Bayer Foundation Women Empowerment Award in 2022 and the $1 million grand prize at the Milken Motsepe Prize in Agritech in 2023.
NovFeed has also received the Ocean Exchange Neptune Award, recognition at Solve at MIT, the Minderoo Foundation Prize, and the Sustainable Harvesting Spotlight Award. Locally, it was named first runner-up at the Ifakara Hackathon in 2020. The company has gained support from organisations such as Chemonics International and the Tanzania Small Industry Development Organisation, which have helped it expand research and outreach.
Alongside building NovFeed, Diana Orembe continues to give back as a mentor at UNLEASH, a global innovation lab for sustainable solutions. Through this role, she encourages young innovators, particularly women and youth in Africa, to pursue science-driven entrepreneurship.
