Les potentiels insectes alimentaires d Afrique Francophone / Potential edible insects of French speaking Africa
Authors
Tchibozo, S.
Mergen, P.
Discipline
Biological sciences
Subject
Invertebrates
Audience
Scientific
Date
2014Publisher
Space for Life Insectarium
Metadata
Show full item recordDescription
Africa is a potentially rich continent, which has the resources to be self-sustainable in terms of food and nutrition plans. The percentage of proteins in human alimentation diminishes gradually. This deficiency is progressing rapidly worldwide and particularly in Africa, where the sources of proteins still remain diverse but not necessarily easy to access or consumed. Non ligneous forest products have been consumed since memorable times until today. Edible insects play an important role in protein intake of thousands of people inhabiting rural and urban areas in Africa, as they have not easily access to bush meat or meat sold in butcheries. Thirteen insect species belonging to the orders of Isoptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Orthoptera have been identified by the consumers as being particularly rich in proteins and other nutritional elements important to the wellbeing. The high pressure of free ranging on species in the Nature however induces that these species become very rare in the wild and also more and more expensive on the markets. Alternatives such as rearing have to be considered to reduce the environmental pressure, the risks of biodiversity loss in case of over-exploitation and to guarantee access to this source of protein at an affordable price to the consumers. Strong from the experiences gathered with intense animal breeding farms and in the domain of aquaculture, it is to plead for a more biological and sustainable approach concerning the perspectives in entomoculture .
Citation
Tchibozo, S.; Mergen, P. (2014). Les potentiels insectes alimentaires d Afrique Francophone / Potential edible insects of French speaking Africa. , Eating Innovation: the Art, Culture, Science and Business of Entomophagy, Space for Life Insectarium,Identifiers
Type
Conference
Peer-Review
No
Language
eng