Acheta domesticus (Cricket) feed resources among smallholder farmers in Lake Victoria region of Kenya

Abstract

The quality of domesticated crickets depends on the choice of feed substrate that has a direct impact on the economic viability of the farming operation. This study assessed the popular local cricket feeds in the Lake Victoria region. Data were collected through individual interviews, focus group discussions, personal observations, and growth experiments. Kales, sweet potato leaves, ugali, and banana peels were the most preferred by the farmers. Crickets fed on kales and sweet potatoes had a significantly higher weight gain and maturity rate than those fed on ugali and banana peels (p < .05). Additionally, crickets fed on kales and sweet potatoes had higher (82.4% and 78.6%, respectively) crude proteins compared to those fed on ugali (57.9%) and banana peels (62.9%). Kales and sweet potatoes can serve as cheaper, alternative local feeds for cricket farming. Empowerment of farmers through subsidies or provision of loans can enhance local cricket feed production.

A Literature Review of the Use of Weeds and Agricultural and Food Industry By-Products to Feed Farmed Crickets (Insecta; Orthoptera; Gryllidae)

“…Magara et al (2019) also found that diet protein content caused a strong sex ratio bias in offspring, with a female-biased sex ratio observed in S. icipe populations reared on higher protein (16-41%) diets of wheat bran, soybean, and/or pumpkin leaf. Higher-protein diets were also correlated with higher-protein content in A. domesticus (Bawa et al, 2020;Oloo et al, 2020).…”

“…ADF, acid detergent fiber; C, carbohydrate; CF, crude fiber; CP, crude protein; DM, dry matter; NDF, neutral detergent fiber. 2016), microbial counts and relative abundance (Ng'ang'a et al, 2020), maturity period (Oloo et al, 2020), nitrogen efficiency, phosphorus content, total fatty acids (Oonincx et al, 2015), developmental rate, glycoalkaloid concentrations, fatty acid content and composition (Sorjonen et al, 2019), daily DM intake, and periodic FCR (Vaga et al, 2019).…”

“…Sixty-eight percentage of variation in A. domesticus population viability was attributed to crude protein content (Harsányi et al, 2020). The positive effects of high feed protein content appear to reach saturation at protein contents higher than 20-30%, above which result in greater mortality, lighter weight, and longer development times (Orinda et al, 2017;Magara et al, 2019;Oloo et al, 2020). This saturation of the positive effects of protein was also found to be true in one study which investigated Ruspolia differens (Serville, 1838, Orthoptera:Tettigoniidae), implying that this effect may extend to other Orthoptera as well (Sorjonen et al, 2020).…”

“…Low-protein diets were shown to lengthen development time compared to higher protein feeding regimes (Oonincx et al, 2015;Magara et al, 2019;Sorjonen et al, 2019Sorjonen et al, , 2020Oloo et al, 2020), with 68% of the effect on development rate being attributed to crude protein content (Harsányi et al, 2020). Low protein diets were shown to result in higher mortality (Lundy and Parrella, 2015;Magara et al, 2019;Sorjonen et al, 2019;Harsányi et al, 2020) and cause a significant male bias (Magara et al, 2019).…”

“…Nutritional variation by developmental stage has also been shown to significantly impact growth and survival parameters. A number of studies have shown that there is no observed difference in weight gain across experimental and control diets within the first 1-5 weeks of development, after which there is a sharp decline in weight gain observed for less nutritious alternative feeds (Patton, 1967;Ng'ang'a et al, 2020;Oloo et al, 2020;Vaga et al, 2020). Delaying the onset of lower-nutrient experimental diet regimes until 1-2 weeks after hatching ensures that the groups have equal metabolic capacity during later stages of significant growth (Lundy and Parrella, 2015;Dobermann et al, 2019).…”