Eat insects, scientists urge Africa

Accra, Thursday

Twenty-nine-year-old Kofi Kafui Kornu nostalgically recalls the visits to his grandparents’ home in Ghana’s eastern Volta region when he was growing up.

Though he last visited the village three years ago, he cherishes memories of wine tappers partaking the local delicacy of silk worms.

“When the tappers returned home from their farms they carried a bowl of worms collected from the palm trees. The insects would be boiled and eaten as an accompaniment,” he said on the sidelines of an international agricultural conference underway in Accra, Ghana.

The ICT and mathematics teaching assistant at the Catholic University College in Sunyani says though he never got the opportunity to eat the worms, he still shares the memories with his age mates.

Experts at the conference called to look at ways of ending endemic famine in the region are backing the consumption of insects as an alternative but rich and readily available source of nutrition.

Insect eating in Ghana, like in many African countries, is not uncommon. Up north, tribes like the Frafra also collect and fry termites attracted to light after rainfall. After the wings are plucked, the termites are fried without oil and eaten.

In May, Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) released a report — Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security — advocating more consumption of insects as low-fat high-protein diets for people, pets and livestock.

Though currently two billion people eat insects globally, FAO has launched a campaign for their increased uptake as an alternative source of food for the continent’s growing population which is expected to double in 2050.

According to Dr Suresh Raina, a principal research scientist with the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe), the uptake of insects though significant in Africa is greatly hindered by perceptions.

“So many people think about what the insects do when they are alive and where they have been and this negative picture actually creates the unpalatability perception in their minds,” he said.

Dr Raina noted that urbanisation also plays a role especially in cases where people who used to eat insects in their rural areas do not now want to be associated with what is seen as poverty.

“The general public needs to be educated on the benefits of eating insects because they are more nutritious than red meat,” he said. The scientist admits that it will however take time before “high class” Africans walk into a restaurant and order a plate of worms or other edible insects, however exquisitely they may have been cooked.

In line with the FAO’s campaign, icipe has already dedicated a department for the mass production of caterpillars and grasshoppers in order to repopulate the areas where they are highly consumed.

The scientist, who is currently involved in a project promoting beekeeping for pollination purposes in Kenya, says that he wants to promote the consumption of drones locally and export it to a ready market in Japan.

“Male drones in the hives have now other work in the hives apart from populating with the queen bee and studies have shown that they are quite a high source of protein.

“So apart from farmers having a bumper harvest from the cross pollination and honey which they can sell, they will in time be able to harvest the drones to supplement their food stores,” he said.