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InsectiPro is a Kenyan company that engages in insect farming to reduce food insecurity in Africa. With growing populations in Africa comes an increasing demand for food sources, but the current food supply outweighs the demand. The 2022 Global Report on Food Crises 2022 Mid-Year Update highlights that, at minimum, one in five people in Africa ends the day without meeting their food needs and about 140 million individuals in Africa endure acute levels of food insecurity. InsectiPro is creating “sustainable, nutritious and profitable systems” with its unique solution to food poverty. The company focuses on achieving four of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an aim to end poverty and inequality: dissolving hunger and malnutrition (SDG 2), “industry and innovation” (SDG 9), “responsible consumption and production” (SDG 12) and engaging in partnerships (SDG 17).
The Work of InsectiPro
InsectiPro farms black soldier flies and crickets on a large, commercial scale, ensuring there is a bulk supply of a nutritious food source for people in Kenya. This is important work considering the World Bank’s report in 2020 that 26.1% of Kenya’s population suffers from severe levels of food insecurity. In Kenya, locally sourced meat and fish are expensive, especially for impoverished families. Instead of getting rid of insects that farmers often find on their lands, these insects could be used as an alternative food source. InsectiPro looks to “make insect consumption widely accepted,” The Index Project says.
How Does InsectiPro Operate?
The company grows crickets in “stackable crates,” which maximizes farming space as opposed to utilizing spans of farmland. An adult female cricket can lay as many as 100 eggs each day, and since they prefer to lay their eggs in damp, warm areas, the crates that InsectiPro uses provide an ideal breeding environment. Once 10 days pass, the InsectiPro team transfers crickets to feeding trays, where they remain for a further five weeks. Then, the crickets are “harvested, frozen, thawed and baked,” How we made it in Africa reports. The company currently offers three types of cricket products — porridge, a powder and a crunchy snack.
Insects as a Food Source
Crickets are a very valuable food source due to their protein-rich nature and essential amino acid content. Studies indicate that crickets may contain up to 73% of protein. The fact that crickets contain up to three more complete proteins compared to a piece of beef of the same weight and provide higher levels of iron, vitamins and fiber illustrates their nutritional value.
Black soldier flies are also high in protein and can stand as a sustainable food option. Farming insects to reduce food insecurity also has the potential to address protein deficiencies that could manifest in malnutrition and life-threatening conditions, such as kwashiorkor and marasmus. Therefore, in the aim to make nations in Africa more food secure and healthy, plentiful supplies of protein in the form of crickets have significant potential.
Plans for the Future
InsectiPro currently works in Kenya, but the company has already received requests to export its goods to other nations. The practice of growing insects in Africa is becoming more and more prominent because of its vast benefits. The company has received a certificate from the local bureau of standards and is also focusing its attention on regional markets. InsectiPro has plans to expand to Uganda in 2023 and Rwanda in 2024 but says it will stick to farming the insects commonly consumed in those areas, namely, grasshoppers.
Insect farming to reduce food insecurity is a revolutionary idea that could become more popular in the near future. Addressing food insecurity is a vital part of tackling poverty and the unique work of InsectiPro is a positive step in the right direction.
– Ruby Wallace
Photo: Flickr
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