The HEALTHYNSECT project is an inter-disciplinary research project investigating the impacts of insect consumption and production on nutritional status, health and livelihoods in Kenya (focus on crickets), Uganda (grasshoppers) and Ghana (palm weevil larvae). Aim is to accelerate rural insect farming for food and nutrition in Africa. This project run from 2020-2024 and was financially supported by Danida, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Denmark.
For us the study in Kenya was of utmost interest, because of the focus of crickets. The HEALTHYNSECT study investigated the willingness to and actual adoption of cricket farming among more than 1000 small-scale farmers provided with training, start-up kits, a network of fellow farmers, and – for some – sessions on the nutritional benefits of crickets. Results are:
- Farmer’s initial perception – before offered training – of the benefits or challenges of cricket farming significantly influenced their likelihood of adopting farming.
- More vulnerable farmers experiencing food insecurity and with less access to credit and off-farm income appeared less likely to adopt.
- A major challenge for many farmers is successful egg laying and hatching. Climate-controlled centralized hatching facility is one approach to increase the successful adoption.
In Kenya this study was conducted by JKUAT, JOOUST, MMUST, ICIPE and Uni of Copenhagen.
See the news item on the HEALTHYNSECT website: https://nexs.ku.dk/english/research/nutrition-health/sustainable-nutrition-and-health/healthynsect/Kenya_brief.pdf
These results are in line with observations by our project. As Flying Food we will take these results into account in our further scaling strategies for the cricket business. We are focusing on larger companies and our medium farms include climate-controlled hatchery and breeding spaces.
