Benin, Porto Novo, Insect Valuation for Food

The Benin Insect Development Project is an agricultural development and food security project. The aim is to set up a chain of edible insects, from livestock to processing and marketing. This provides the population with a very interesting, ecological and affordable source of protein and trace elements that will help improve the overall food security state.

The implementation of this innovative sector for Benin will fill a gap in local production of animal products that is currently being compensated by massive imports, especially of frozen products. This project will create a new income-generating activity for farmers.

The VIA project takes place in two phases:

Phase 1: between 2016 and 2018, a pilot farm has been built and is functional, a protocol for turning crickets into powder has been developed and tested, and finally, avenues for the insertion of the powder into traditional Benin food vectors have been developed and tested. have been studied.

Phase 2: starting in 2018, an action research project on commercial-scale cricket farming and the marketing of food derivatives to vulnerable populations. To do this, Experts-Solidaires and the Songhaï Centre have partnered with the Institute for Research for Development (IRD), through its research unit in entomology and AgroParisTech Paris.

The project includes an operational component and a research component. These two components are intertwined because the results of the actions implemented in the operational component will be the study subjects of the research component, while the results from the research component will improve the results of the operational component. .