Food shortage is a problem which is affecting many countries in the world especially most developing countries because of high population.
Though governments have tried their level best to fight these problem experts says that there is need to diversify to other farming methods such as insect farming.
A report by a European food safety body which looks at the potential of insects as food or animal feed, says that the microbiological, chemical and environmental risks of insect farming are similar to those of other animal husbandry.
“Farming insects on a large scale is no more of a biological or chemical hazard than other animals farming,” indicates the report.
With more than2, 000 edible insects being registered insects are already a staple food in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, with around two billion people on the planet thought to consider insects as acceptable food.
The report reveals that while insect farming is rare in developed countries, it is growing in developing nations. Thailand alone has more than 20,000 registered cricket farms, mostly run by smallholders.
“Cricket farming requires fewer inputs compared to livestock, making it affordable for small-scale rural farmers, with overall less impact on the environment,” says Yupa Hanboonsong, an entomologist at Khon Kaen University in Thailand.
According to Charlotte Payne, a researcher on edible insects at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom since this farming has not been tried on an industrial scale and that there is a lack of systematically collected data on insect farming and consumption worldwide more research need to be done on the overall environmental impact and sustainability of insect farming systems.
“There are “knowledge gaps and uncertainty related to possible hazards when insects are used as food or feed”, the report says.
“Farming insects’ industrially can combat malnutrition and reduce environmental stresses, such as land degradation and water pollution caused by large-scale meat and fish farming,” adds Payne.