Current Challenges for Insect Farms in Developing Countries

Insects as a food source are not a novelty of the last decade; many countries have practiced its consumption for millennia. However, a key difference today is how these insects are obtained and the products developed from them. This advancement poses challenges in developing countries. With a growing global population, environmental changes due to global warming, and a fraying food production chain, insect farms and insects themselves are emerging as an alternative to traditional food. This article explores the main challenges of raising and caring for these animals in innovative insect farms.

One of the first challenges is to know in depth the insect to be raised; that is, to master its entomology. This ranges from basic aspects such as their diet and life cycle, to optimal environmental conditions for their development and more complex aspects such as identification and treatment of diseases, collection of eggs or larvae, and reproduction cycles (Person, 2023; Rowe et al., 2024). Experts in the area, such as Shelby Smith, founder of Gym-n-Eat Crickets in the United States, emphasizes that maintaining adequate humidity and temperature conditions, between 27 and 30 degrees Celsius, the latter being the most optimal, and ensuring biosecurity of farms are priorities and one of the biggest challenges (Agade, 2024; Fuah, Siregar & Astuti, 2016; Person, 2023). For example, in the case of crickets, it is easy for them to contract diseases such as acheta domesticus densovirus, caused mainly by high population densities in small spaces, which generates cannibalism and stress, which can result in 100% mortality rate (Armién et al. al, 2023; Fuah, Siregar and Astuti, 2016). 

Biosecurity and adequate conditions are, therefore, key to the proper functioning of these farms.

Maintaining these conditions can be complicated in countries with extreme and varied climatic seasons, such as severe winters, intense rains or periods of extreme heat (Person, 2023; Sultana, 2024). This requires constant external power sources, a challenge in places with power shortages. Furthermore, the global increase in temperature due to global warming further complicates this maintenance, especially when temperature is crucial in the growth of insects for consumption (Fuah, Siregar & Astuti, 2016; Sultana, 2024).

In countries with little investment capital, insect farms face limitations in the availability of suitable container materials, lack of training and specialized labor, failures in quality control, poor packaging and marketing, and little research and development in the use of byproducts and creation of new technologies (Alemu et al, 2023; Fuah, Siregar & Astuti, 2016; Sultana, 2024). For example, insects intended for human consumption are fed with the same type of food used in industries such as poultry, generating an impact that is barely lower and at a still high cost (Gray, 2020; Halloran et al, 2017; Masterson , 2017). Therefore, finding an alternative food source is a challenge that can only be overcome with sufficient investment in research and development. Hand in hand, given that most insect farms are at a small or medium scale, they could not meet current demand to be considered a viable large-scale alternative, requiring a detailed environmental impact analysis too (Halloran et al, 2017 ; Lange and Nakamura, 2021).

Finally, one of the most difficult barriers to overcome is the introduction of insect protein into Western diets, because in this region insects are usually associated with disgust and insalubrity, generating an immediate rejection (Lange & Nakamura, 2021). Acceptance and incorporation into everyday diets is further complicated due to strict regulations on the origin of insects, labeling, and allergens present, slowing down their adoption (Alemu et al, 2023; Van Huis, 2022). Studies have shown that for consumers to accept an alternative to traditional animal protein, it must be attractive and tasty, leaving factors such as health and environmental benefits on a second plane (Van Huis, 2022). Therefore, effective marketing strategies and the development of attractive products are vital for the insect industry to be considered a viable alternative to traditional proteins, taking into account that the capital required can be a limitation.

Despite these challenges, the insect farming industry continues to grow and more and more companies are joining the creation of insect-based food products. Insect farming and insect-based food products still have a long but promising way to go to replace traditional animal protein. It is time for big companies to emerge and accept insects as an option for food production.

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