Researchers at Egerton University believe they have found the perfect ingredient to animal feed and way to counter malnutrition in children.
n a small room at a university in Nakuru County, two researchers are working on a unique innovation that is set to boost food security and provide farmers with fortified feed for their animals and a new source of revenue.
Egerton University’s Dr John Nduko and Dr Anthony King’ori have discovered a new technique to harvest and process insects, specifically grasshoppers and termites, into sustainable protein to make affordable nutritious foods.
They are now focusing on developing a tool kit to make rearing the insects easier for small-scale farmers, and to earn some revenue.
“When growing up, we loved chasing grasshoppers, competing to catch the largest. We would then skewer them after removing the legs and wings and putting a stick through them.
This delicacy was crunchy and delicious. However, what we did not know was that eating grasshoppers was very good for us,” says Dr Nduko.
“What we were doing as children was nothing new or unique as eating insects has been a practice of humans from time immemorial, especially in Africa, with ‘kumbe kumbe’ (termites) being among the favourites.”
Insects serve as important components of diets in some cultures and more than 1,900 species have been used as food. They are highly nutritious and healthy, and rich in proteins, vitamins, fat, fibre and minerals.
Animal feeds derived from these insects are of a high quality similar to fishmeal and soy-based feeds. Grasshoppers are healthy, nutritious and packed with high amounts of protein and oils that are good for the body and essential for development.
In Kenya and many other African countries, protein is expensive and out of reach for many who really need it. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), one out of every four children in sub-Saharan Africa is malnourished, and 39 per cent of Kenyan children suffer from chronic malnutrition due to poverty, more than double the emergency threshold. The world population is growing rapidly and increasing demand for food, especially high-protein foods such as beef, poultry, fish, rabbits, chicken and pigs.
An upsurge in the demand for feeds could have devastating environmental consequences. The feeds are costly, especially the protein components, which often come from traditional sources such as soybean, fish, cotton, and sunflower cakes.
he large-scale production of these feeds will have adverse effects on the environment as more feed production companies go for the cheaper chemical alternatives. To help stem these consequences, there is a need for new sources of proteins, and insects became the choice of the Egerton University researchers, who have turned to grasshoppers to harness their proteins and oils.
After capturing grasshoppers and locusts, they rear them to multiply, then dry and turn them into protein-rich powder that can be used to fortify baby formula and also as a protein-rich feed for small non-ruminant animals.
The powder is used as a supplement in other foods due to its high protein concentration. It is edible, has no taste and can be added directly to food or during cooking. The supplement can be used as the protein component in making animal feeds, replacing the more expensive alternatives such as fish.
“Grasshoppers can help alleviate malnutrition and hunger and improve the livelihoods of smallholders as a new food innovation, and a sustainable, affordable protein source for animal food and baby food. The increasing prices of fish meal together with heightened aquaculture investments are pushing research towards the development of proteins from insects,” says Dr Nduko.
Insect farming can be done at the house-hold or industrial level, but harvesting from their natural habitats has over the years put some edible species in peril. “Moreover, climate change will likely impact on the distribution and availability of edible insects. Rearing insects has recently emerged and some have been grown on a large-scale and processed into human food or animal feeds,” the food scientist says.
This is why the researchers are focusing on developing a tool kit that will make locust rearing possible and affordable. Over the next few months, they will concentrate on harvesting insects, testing their product and recruiting partners to help commercialise and sell the innovation.
In the small room at Egerton, there are four cages for rearing grasshoppers. They are square metallic boxes made with glass on one side of the walls and fitted with a light bulb for warmth. There is also a wire mesh for hanging around and basking in the bulb, and a small sand pit for laying eggs.
“This is just the pilot stage and it is going on smoothly with minimal challenges. We are now planning to expand the colony and will be making 100kg of grasshopper powder from each harvest,” says Mr Peter Kariuki, a student of entomology at the University of Nairobi.
Dr Nduko and Dr Kingori’s food and feed innovation is the first of its kind in Kenya. The researchers are eager to share the positive effects of eating insects on the environmental, economic and agricultural practices in Kenya and East Africa.
They are working on the rearing of locust research with a start-up grant from the Global Centre for Food Systems Innovation (GCFSI) of Michigan State University (US). So far, the team has collected locusts from Nakuru and Baringo counties and is now experimenting with rearing them in small cages prior to piloting.
Why permaculture is the future of food production
Organic farming is gaining currency among small-and large-scale farmers, pushed by demand from consumers who are now more aware of what they eat and how it affects their health.
Organic refers to food produced or derived from nature, a word that many people have come to associate with ecologically-aware farming practices and which, over the past decade has become the fastest growing sector across the agribusiness economy.
But while organic farming takes into consideration factors such as how we farm, what we plant, how we plant, what we add to the soil and how to take care of the crops and vegetation around us, permaculture takes organic farming a step further by giving it a more agro-ecological approach.
Permaculture is a regenerative landscape design practice. It mimics how nature works as a model for human living, especially where food production is concerned.
It intends to create abundance and stability within the broader ecosystem, obtained by closing nutrient cycles, enhancing soil life and species diversity and aims to design resilient landscapes that are both ecologically sound and financially viable.
“Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation, rather than thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system,” said Bill Mollison, founder of the permaculture movement. The Distant Relatives Eco-lodge in Kilifi is one of the pioneers of this agribusiness in Kenya.
Nestled between the Giriama village of Fumbini and the emerald waters of Kilifi creek, offering beautiful sunsets and breath taking sceneries, the lodge is an out of the ordinary facility.
It has become a message of optimism and an experimental model of environmentally conscious living, in an age where people are becoming more aware of their natural surroundings and of what they eat. From the moment you arrive, everything around it points to its love for nature, where rather than work against it, it has integrated it beautifully in every aspect of its design; from the passion fruit walkway leading to the entrance, the outdoor bamboo showers that preach water efficiency and recycling and the neat rows of ‘composting’ toilets.
Zimbabwean Tichafa Makovere, one of the founding fathers of the African permaculture movement, runs training courses here for farmers and other agribusiness groups. This is done in conjunction with Barefoot Solutions, a Kenyan permaculture organization. The training consists of a perfect mix of the practical and theoretical. The lodge landscape offered a fantastic learning ground for the permaculture concept.
Barefoot Solutions was founded by Sven Verwiel and Ivan Lieman, who specialise in the art of regenerative landscape design. “We can survive and thrive if we copy nature,” were words once said by permaculture expert David Holmgren. Nature, he says, never dies and always finds a way to thrive even in the toughest of conditions.