The incessant chirping of crickets welcomes one to Charles Odira’s farm in Namthoe village, Kisumu County.
The 55-year-old has kept the insects for the last seven years on part of his three-acre farm. He harvests, dries and processes them to make various products.
Odira is among farmers in the country and across Africa who have taken up cricket farming as scientists push for insects to be part of the solution to rising malnutrition problem.
Crickets (Achita domestica) are a rich source of crude protein and fat, according to Dr Chrysantus Mbi Tanga, a scientist at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe), which, respectively, make up 57 per cent and 36 per cent of its dry body weight mass.
Demand for the insects has been growing steadily especially among livestock keepers and consumers, giving farmers like Odira ready market for their produce.
Odira uses two methods to rear the insects. The first is the pen system where the structures are made of concrete (bricks, cement and sand) or wooden materials with hideouts made of paper egg trays or improvised bamboo.
The second is the crate system where the insects are kept in the large plastic boxes.
He feeds them fine chicken growers mash and vegetables as well as water, which is soaked in cotton wool and pieces of blankets.
“I have six cricket pens and each hosts some 30,000 insects. On the other hand, the 55 crates hold 1,500 crickets each,” explains Odira.
Food fortification
The crickets are ready for harvest after three months. “Before harvest, we starve them for 24 hours to clear their systems to ensure that whatever was in the gut is out since the insects are consumed whole,” he explains.
After harvesting, he says, one then chooses how to process them for food depending on preference. “They can be fried in a pan and taken as snacks or directly eaten with a stew.”
Alternatively, they can be dried and milled into fine flour and used in food fortification.
Odira mills cricket flour that he adds to wheat flour for baking and finger millet for porridge-making.
Dr Tanga notes cricket-fortified porridge has protein ranging between 15 –16 grams per 100 grams and energy from 408 – 414 kilo calories per 100 grams, which is far much higher than the 13 grams per 100 grams and 400 kilocalories per 100 grams recommended daily protein intake and energy in children aged between one and three of any food consumed per day.
Cricket farming is a lucrative business, reckons Odira, who sells the dried insects for Sh2,800 per kilo to customers from various parts of the country.
“On average, we produce up to 40 kilos of dried crickets in a month, and sell most of them on order even before we harvest,” he explains.
In a month, he produces 20 kilos of cricket flour valued at Sh3,000 each. “We sell the flour and also use it to produce our own baked products such as biscuits, muffins, cakes and bread.”
In a day, he bakes up to 30 loaves of bread that go for Sh50. “This bread is popular here,” he says.
He further sells up to 60 kilos of cricket eggs substrate at Sh1,000 each.
Patience Sibanda displays mopane worms at a vegetable market in Gweru, Zimbabwe.
Some 3,000km away in Marange District, south east of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, Blessing Mutedzi runs a mopane worms (Gonimbrasia belina) farm. The worms are a staple dish in the country.
The farm hosts dozens of mopane and jackal berry trees, which the worms feed.
He harvests 20 kilos of worms per month, but this year the yields have declined due to higher temperatures.
“Mopane worms require 30-350C to thrive, but this time temperatures have been much higher causing heat stress to our worms, most of which died,” he says.
Mopane worms are popular in Southern African and their sales offer livelihoods to hundreds of people.
Patience Sibanda, an insect merchandiser based in Gweru Zimbabwe, says the insects are fast-moving.
“They make me a lot of money. On a good day, I sell $20 (Sh2,308) worth of mopane worms, which is very good business,” she says.
A 2021 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the world report by the United Nations agencies shows that economic downturns in 2020, including those resulting from Covid-19 containment measures, contributed to one of the largest increases in world hunger in decades, affecting almost all low and middle income countries, with the largest increases in prevalence of undernourishment occurring in Africa.
So, how could insects solve the food security and malnutrition problem?
“It is way cheaper and environmentally friendlier to keep insects than animals for protein. Insects require less water and less land as compared to other plant and animal source proteins. They could also be fed on various forms of organic wastes which are a lot cheaper than animal feeds,” explains Asaah Ndambi, a senior international animal production specialist and a lecturer at the University of Nairobi.
Protein content
Charles Ng’ong’a, a research scientist at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST), says one needs 1.7 kilos of feeds to produce a kilo of cricket, unlike 2.5 kilos of feeds needed to produce a kilo of chicken, or 5 kilos of feeds necessary to produce a kilo of pork and 10 kilos of feeds required to produce a kilo of beef.
“Most insects have up to 48 per cent protein content, and others even 60 per cent, a quantity that exceeds protein in beef, pork and chicken. They are also rich in hyper-quality proteins and healthy fats (omega-3 and omega-6) and dense in some minerals such as iron, zinc, potassium, sodium, which are less dense in livestock,” says Ng’onga.
Thus, insect consumption is a sure way of boosting immunity especially in vulnerable children in Africa.
“Crickets are rich in protein, zinc, calcium and essential amino acids, crucial for fat metabolism and immune function,” explains Ng’onga.
However, even as rearing and consumption rises, scientists say research on a significant number of insects is needed before they are confirmed to be fully safe for consumption.
“At the threat of capture, insects like all wild creatures, release toxins, which are potentially harmful.
Therefore, there is a need to follow proper procedures in the collection, preparation and storage,” advises Dr Tanga.
Processing is key considering in eliminating some risks.
“For crickets, from harvesting, they should be dipped in boiling water for about two to five minutes for instant killing and killing of microbes if any,” explains Ng’ong’a.
Across the continent, scientists are developing manuals to avert food safety concerns in the insects’ value chain.
Insect-fortified foods
In Kenya, since 2017, the Africa Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Use of Insects as Food and Feeds (INSEFOODS) Department at JOOUST, has been carrying out research on sustainable use of insects as food and feeds.
Monica Ayieko, the principal investigator and a professor of consumer economics at the university, says their study showed children who fed on insect-fortified foods had a higher growth rate and low morbidity.
At Chinhoyi University in Zimbabwe, scientists have analysed more than 40 species of insects consumed in the country, and realised that most have a protein content of above 30 per cent and plenty of fat that is translated into energy.
But even with the glaring advantages, there is more to be done for insects to be fully accepted as a major source of proteins for human consumption. Despite the fact that eating insects in Africa isn’t new, farming them hasn’t been fully embraced yet.
This is because of limited culture on inclusion of insects in human diets and the market is not guaranteed.
Kenya, however, has made some good efforts to incorporate insects into the food culture. The Kenya Bureau of Standards last year issued guidelines on the production of insect-related products.
Similarly, Rwanda launched standards for the edible insects’ sector following the establishment of the country’s first commercial insect-based animal feed plant.
With scientific and technical support from Icipe, Rwanda has joined other East African countries in the quest for using insects to reshape food systems into a sustainable circular economy.
Elsewhere, a collaborative effort by gastronomists and researchers in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) led to the production of the book, “Secrets of African edible insect cookery”.
The cookbook documents indigenous knowledge in the preparation of insects that was slowly dying away with older generations.
And in Zimbabwe, Boma Hotel awards certificates to all tourists that eat their signature mopane worm dish, as a way of encourage people to embrace insects as food. BY DAILY NATION