A team of researchers from Uganda Christian University (UCU) have come up with a development through which they are processing food waste materials into feeds for house crickets (obunyeenyenkule) and pigs.
Dr. Geoffrey Ssepuuya, the principle investigator said that between 2021 and 2023, with the funding of sh108m provided by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST), they carried out a research purposely on how to add value on the food waste materials which mostly burden the town dwellers.
At the end of the first phase of research, Dr. Ssepuuya reported that they developed four different types of house cricket feeds whereby at least the farmers recommended one of the four as the best feed for their insects.
Ssepuuya said that just like the other edible insects such as white ants (enswa), grasshoppers (enseenene) and others, the house crickets are high in proteins even more than animal meat.
He added that apart from supplementing animal feeds, house crickets can also be processed into children’s feeds mainly for infants that are malnourished due to protein deficiency.
On Friday, the UCU’s acting Director of Academic Affairs, Vincent Kisenyi launched the phase two of the program through which the researchers are going to implement their research for increased production.
Kisenyi said that apart from producing the cricket feeds now at a large scale which is also going to call for soliciting for big tons of food waste from the communities, the team is also going to process pig feeds out of the same food waste.
“Because the production plant is going to be built in Mukono, where UCU has its main campus, that means that we are going to create employment for our people, mostly the youth,” he said.
Dr. Ssepuuya said that in the phase two, UNCST provided $63,700 (sh243m) for the production of cricket feeds out of food waste whereas UCU provided sh50m for the production of pig feeds out of the waste food materials.
“We are going to create a sorted food waste collection system, establish a small scale food waste upcycling facility that is going to be running independently for the assortment of food waste materials into cricket feeds,” he said.
Dr. John Mutyaba, said that garbage poses a lot of health and environmental harzards more so if it is not disposed of well.
Mutyaba added that they are going to sensitize the communities where they are going to work from to at least start sorting garbage in order to ease the way of collection.
“There a number of people doing garbage recycling, as we are interested in food waste materials, others need plastic, glasses, papers and many others. If they are sorted, each of those can easily pick what he or she wants which may not be easy if they are mixed in one container,” he said.
Josephine Nabbanja, a house cricket farming group leader from Masaka City said that previously, they were feeding their crickets on poultry feeds which used to be expensive but when the UCU researchers started to supply them with the cricket feeds, they are registering some positive results.
Nabbanja says that unlike before when they were just basing on the chicken feeds, whose nutrients were not specifically for crickets, now that they are fed on feeds that are particularly made for them, they are growing very fast.
“Unlike rearing chicken which sometimes gets ready with no available market, our crickets are in high demand by the very researchers who again take them for their other value addition purposes,” she said.
Johnson Kazungu, a pig farmer from Nakisunga sub-county in Mukono district commended UCU for coming up with this innovation which is connecting the local community with the university.
Atanansi Ssegujja, a veterinary officer from Mukono district said that the district is going to join UCU in making community sensitization about proper handling and disposal of garbage.