Prospects of Insect Farming

Insect FarmingFor a sustainable food future

photo courtesy: aspirefg.com

Insect Farming, Idea Studio Nepal, by Nabin Karki Thapa1

It’s not an idea, it’s a necessity.

• Question of future Food and feed security.

• Currently roughly 1 billion chronically hungry people.

• By 2050, 9 billion people with high demand for protein.

• How sustainable are current solutions ?

• Resources are limited. Efficiency and sustainability becomes important.


Entomophagy ?

• Practice of eating insects.

• 2 billion people already eat insects as a part of their diet.

• 1900 species out of more than 5 millions are already reported to be used as food.


Why eat insects ?

Health & Nutritional

Benefits

Environmental benefits

Economic & Social Benefits


Nutritional & Health Benefits

• Insects are healthy, nutritious alternatives to mainstream staples such as chicken, pork and beef.

• They have comparable protein content to animal food and at the same time are high on micronutrients such as vitamins, zinc, iron, calcium, fiber, etc. and low on fat.

• Taxonomically distant from humans, so less likely to transmit food-borne diseases.


Environmental Benefits

• Industrial Livestock Farming accounts to 15 % in Global GHG emission. Insects release a 100 times less quantity of GHG than animals like beef.

• Feed Security Significantly higher Feed to meat conversion ratio. For e.g. Conversion factor of

crickets is 2 times more than of chicken, four times more than of pigs, and 12 times more than of cattle.

Plus they are more edible. For e.g. 80 % of a cricket is edible while only 55 % of chicken and pork and 40 % of beef is edible.

• Estimated that By 2025, 1.8b people will be living in areas with absolute water scarcity.

Insects require a lot less water as compared to other animals. E.g. - the production of 1 kg of chicken requires 2300 liters of virtual water, 1 kg of pork requires 3 500 liters and 1 kg of beef requires 22000 liters, where it takes only about 1 liter of water for 1 kg of crickets.


Environmental Benefits

• Land usage• Insect rearing is not necessarily a land-based activity and does not require land clearing to expand

production. Also, while It takes 200 m2 to grow 1 pound of beef, it only takes 15 m2 to grow 1 pound of crickets.

• Waste management• Insects can be fed on organic waste streams.


Socio-economic Benefits

• Insect harvesting/rearing is a low-tech, low-capital investment option that offers entry even to the poorest sections of society, such as women and the landless.

• Insects have a very short seed to harvest timespan and high reproductive rate. Helpful in generating regular cash flow.

• Women inclusion, employment generation, deficit reduction, etc.


Major Challenges

• Further documentation is needed on the nutritional values of insects in order to more efficiently promote insects as healthy food.

• Investigate the sustainability and quantify the environmental impacts of harvesting and farming insects compared with traditional farming and livestock-raising practices.

• Develop a clear and comprehensive legal framework at the (inter-)national level that can pave the way for more investment, leading towards the full development (from the household scale to the industrial scale) of production and trade in insect products for food and feed internationally.

• Erasing the Cultural disgust factor


Insects & Entrepreneurs around the world

• Tiny-farms : ‘Open Bug Farm Kit’ for growing edible insects along with online farm tracking system, tutorials and community support.(USA)

• Third Millennium Farming: ‘The Circle Chirp Cricket Reactor’ for farming, feeding, herding and reproducing hygienic crickets.(Montreal, Canada)

• Next Millennium Farming: Industrial-sized edible insect farms. Ship 8000 lbs. worth of crickets a month - roasted and ground down into a fine flour or powder.(Ontario, Canada)

• Exo: Protein bars made of cricket flour. The same flour supplied by NMF.(Boston, USA)

• Chapul: Energy bars made from cricket flours., Participated in Shark Tank , a reality business themed competition for entrepreneurs. Managed to strike a deal with billionaire Mark Cuban.

• Six Foods: ‘Chirps’ , Packaged chips made out of cricket flour.

• Aspire FG : winner of the 2013 Hult Prize , for the idea of Insect Farming for sustainable food future. Provide necessary solutions for insect farming.


Opportunities in Nepal

• Opportunity to become a leading producer and exporter of whole insects or processed insect products, whatever the demand is.

• Potential market for insects as feed for poultry, aquaculture and other livestock production

• Agrarian business encouraged by the government itself.

• No legislative barriers regarding insect farming till date.

• Employment and export opportunities.


Thank you !!
