Insect and Hydroponic Farming in Africa

management is a challenge.11 In such cases, it is still important to avoid waste substrates with high levels of heavy metals. Using BSFL for feed and composting can reduce GHG emissions. A study in Indonesia found that composting segregated kitchen waste with BSFL can reduce direct CO2-eq emissions by 47 times (Mertenat, Diener, and Zurbrügg 2019). It also found that organic waste composting with BSFL as opposed to open-air composting reduces GWP by half. Farmed insect species convert the organic substrate they feed on very efficiently compared with conventional livestock. The growth efficiency of farmed animals is expressed as the FCR. The FCR evaluates how much feed substrate is needed to produce 1 kg of meat. Insect species have the potential of efficient growth with an FCR as low as 1.4. This is well below the FCR for chicken, which has the most optimized FCR among traditional livestock species (table 3.9). Insects can efficiently convert low-grade organic waste into high-quality fat and protein. When insects are dried, up to 70 percent of their dry matter is protein

TABLE 3.9 Feed Conversion Rates of Various Insect and Livestock Species Species

Feed conversion ratio

Description of the farming system

Reference

Cricket (Acheta domestica and Gryllus bimaculatus)

1.82

Sheltered, open-walled system (Thailand)

Halloran et al. 2017

House cricket (Acheta domesticus)

2.3–6.1

Experiments in a laboratory Oonincx et al. setting 2015

Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens)

1.4–2.6

Experiments in a laboratory setting

Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)

3.8–19.1

Experiments in a laboratory setting

Swine

4.04

National average (United States)

Broiler chicken

2.68

National average (United States)

Layer chicken

2.26

National average (United States)

Turkey

3.58

National average (United States)

Beef cow

23.5

National average (United States)

Striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus)

1.57

Intensive farming systems (Vietnam)

Source: Original table for this publication.

88

Insect and Hydroponic Farming in Africa

Mekonnen et al. 2019

Hasan and Soto 2017

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Insect and Hydroponic Farming in Africa

Published on Dec 14, 2021Agriculture

World Bank Publications

"Interestingly, some relief from today’s woes may come from ancient human practices. While current agri-food production models rely on abundant supplies of water, energy, and arable land and generate significant greenhouse gas emissions in addition to forest and biodiversity loss, past practices point toward more affordable and sustainable paths. Different forms of insect farming and soilless crop farming, or hydroponics, have existed for centuries. In this report the authors make a persuasive case that frontier agriculture, particularly insect and hydroponic farming, can complement conventional agriculture. Both technologies reuse society’s agricultural and organic industrial waste to produce nutritious food and animal feed without continuing to deplete the planet’s land and water resources, thereby converting the world’s wasteful linear food economy into a sustainable, circular food economy. As the report shows, insect and hydroponic farming can create jobs, diversify livelihoods, improve nutrit

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Insect and Hydroponic Farming in Africa by World Bank Publications - Issuu