At an orphanage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DR Congo) capital, Kinshasa, more than 60 children stared at their plate of palm weevil larvae fried up in spices, sharing nervous smiles, before curiously digging into the thick white worms.
The orphans are being fed the protein-rich larvae, known locally as mpose, as part of an initiative from Kinshasa-based non-profit organization Farms for Orphans, which is seeking to address malnutrition in the west African nation.
About one-quarter of the nation’s 99 million population faces a food crisis and half of all orphans are suffering from malnutrition, according to the World Food Programme.
Photo: Reuters
Edible insects, including larvae, are increasingly being studied for their potential as a sustainable alternative form of protein to meat, either for human consumption as in the DR Congo, or for animal feed in Benin.
The Food and Agriculture Organization has said that insects can be a rich source of fat, protein, vitamins, fiber and minerals.
“It is scientifically proven that meat does not have a higher protein concentration than insects, and it’s not easy to get meat, so we wanted to make it simpler,” said Francoise Lukadi, an agricultural engineer who runs Farm for Orphans.
She said the nutrient deficiency was particularly acute in children under five.
The larvae are typically cooked with onions, peppers and tomatoes, and have a cheese-like taste.
“It is important for children to eat mpose because of the proteins, because some children are abandoned in a state of malnutrition,” said Nelly Mimpi, nutritionist and food health supervisor at the orphanage.
Farms for Orphans received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its initial research and launch, but Lukadi hopes to produce enough larvae to sell commercially to subsidize the donations to orphanages.
The organization supplies four restaurants in Kinshasa, where palm worms are becoming increasingly popular.
Her team produces up to 300kg of palm larvae per month — and provides meals to several hundred children per quarter — but she wants to boost production to satisfy growing commercial demand.
Although her team is studying how to grow the larvae and harvest them sustainably in laboratories at the University of Kinshasa and the National Institute of Biomedical Research, some critics say it would be difficult to ramp up production to a commercial scale due to a lack of adequate resources.
According to several peer-reviewed studies, commercial-scale insect farming could also pose food safety risks, as some insect farming requires feed crops that could otherwise go directly toward human consumption.
Farmers in Benin are also experimenting with the potential for insect protein.
Jules Mahinou, a 25-year-old at the head of a group of young poultry farmers called the Elevart Group, breeds black soldier flies in Cotonou, Benin, to produce fly larvae as a source of protein-rich animal feed.
“Right now, we’re operating on a shoestring. Everything is done manually,” Mahinou said, adding that he hoped they would be able to mechanize and produce substitutes for fish and soybean meal.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including