Insects for Food and Feed in Africa

Virtual Dialogue Event

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021

8:00am-9:30am EDT (GMT-05:00)

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Co-hosted by:

Panelists and Moderator

Moderator: Dorothy Nakimbugwe, Associate Professor
Dept of Food Technology & Nutrition, Makerere University

Dorothy Nakimbugwe is a founding Director for Nutreal limited and an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Technology & Nutrition at Makerere University. She has a PhD in Bioscience Engineering from the Katholieke University of Leuven, Belgium; and MSc in Food Science from Cornell University, New York, USA and a BSc. in Food Science & Technology, Makerere University, Uganda.
Her research focuses on developing nutrient-enhanced, value-added food products that address current nutrition and health challenges, from locally available food crops. She is involved in cutting-edge research on insects for food and feed, a topic that has captured global attention, in response to the challenge to feed the growing population on diminishing resources.

Deborah Amulen, Lecturer

Department of Livestock & Industrial Resources, Makerere University

Deborah Amulen is a lecturer at the Department of Livestock & Industrial Resources, Makerere University.
Her research focuses on generating evidence based innovative solutions for sustainable utilization of insect resources for income, employment, conservation, and heath of both humans and animals using multidisciplinary research approaches.
Deborah’s PhD is in Applied Biological Sciences (honeybee health, genomics, pesticides & economics of honey production in Africa).

Jennifer Pechal, Assistant Professor, Dept of Entomology, Michigan State University

Jen Pechal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University.
Her research interests are focused on insect-microbe interactions across ecosystems and decomposition ecology. She uses high-throughput “-omics” and machine learning approaches to answer both basic and applied research questions, specifically focused on the successional changes of microbial communities associated with insects and decomposing organic materials.

Robert Musundire, School of Agricultural Sciences & Technology, Chinhoyi Univ. of Technology, Zimbabwe

Robert Musundire is an Associate Professor of Entomology in the Department of Crop Science and Post-Harvest Technology at Chinhoyi University of Technology, Zimbabwe. He was also a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Michigan State University in 2019 / 2020.
His main research interests are in ecological management of established, endemic and invasive insect pests in natural and ago-ecosystems and utilization of insects as pollinator, bio-control agents and as sustainable food resources for humans and feed for livestock. One of his current projects is on Edible Insects for food security and health in Southern Africa: from practice to evidence and policy implications.

Betty Kibaara, Director, Food Initiative,
Rockefeller Foundation

Betty Kibaara is a Director in the Food Initiative at Rockefeller Foundation, Africa Region Office. She leads the Foundations investments in transforming food systems, specifically in innovations on smart food markets for the future and increasing access to nutritious foods through instructional procurement. She is also advancing insect-based feed for improved nutrition.
Betty led the implementation of the YieldWise Initiative to reduce food loss in Maize (Tanzania), Mangoes (Kenya) and Cassava and Tomato value chains to improve livelihoods for the smallholder farmers. She serves as the regional champion for the Foundations initiatives in strengthening food security, agribusiness, and resilience to the devastating effects of climate change to enable real, sustainable, and equitable economic growth.

Background

The global human population growth rate and the consequent food requirements are alarming. Global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global human population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.9 billion in 2020. This growth, along with rising incomes especially in developing countries (which cause dietary changes such as eating more protein and meat) are driving up global food demand more than ever before. Food demand is expected to increase anywhere between 59% to 98% by 2050. These shocking dynamics underpin the urgent need to explore alternative food and feed sources—first to meet the escalating food demand and second to address the intensifying competition between food and feed. There is an urgent need, therefore, to explore novel alternative and sustainable food and feed production chains to directly benefit humans and indirectly through animals that will later be consumed by humans.

The proposed dialogue bodes well with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 2 -- “ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture” and SDG number 12 which is “ensuring sustainable production and consumption pattern”. It is also in tune with African Union Agenda 2063 agenda # 1 on “A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development”. Finally, this dialogue contributes directly to the Alliance for African Partnership pillar 3 on “Transforming lives”.

This dialogue seeks to assemble world-class experts in the insect for food and feed space to interact with hundreds of interested stakeholders in the academia, government organizations, industrial partners and research organizations with a view to shed light and insights in this field and open avenue for further capacity building, research, and outreach in the area. The expected outcomes are:

Hundreds of interested stakeholders (participating and those that will listen to the recording) made aware of the current state of knowledge in insects for food and feed

Establishment of a community of practice on insects as food and feed on the AAP Bridge who will then begin interacting on the subject on a diversity of topics

Sharing of opportunities and challenges facing the insect for food and feed efforts towards closing the food security gaps in Africa