This archive report was first published on 2 September 2019.
Charles Odira, a farmer in Kisumu County, has taken the leap into cricket farming, a unique venture in the region. His farm, Mixa Farm, is home to a thriving orchard, dairy, and poultry units, as well as a tree seedling nursery.
However, it's the cricket pen that has caught the attention of Enterprise team. Established on a two-acre farm, the pen houses about 180,000 crickets in six concrete pens, each measuring 3m by 2m.
"Welcome to Mixa Farm," Mr Odira says, standing at the cricket section of the farm. "It's now five years since I first interacted with crickets rearing. I was motivated to venture into this kind of farming by the knowledge that crickets have higher protein content than beef and chicken."
"We trapped wild crickets to start the project. We collected about 480 female and 160 male crickets that can comfortably fit into four crates," he says.
Mr Odira's cricket farm rears the Acheta species, which experts say has more fatty acids and is more tasty. They are also rich in zinc, iron, and calcium. The crickets are fed on vegetables, soy flour, and water, and take about three months to mature.
With savings of Sh140,000, Mr Odira set up the cricket pen in 2019. He has employed two workers and has seen a good response from consumers, who are increasingly appreciating the value of cricket to their health.
The farmer sells a kilo of whole crickets at Sh1,000 while a kilo of those milled goes for Sh2,800. A 400g of bread made from cricket flour goes for Sh50, waffles and cupcakes cost Sh25 each, while cookies are priced at Sh10 apiece.
However, apart from the low uptake by consumers, bacterial infections can pose a big challenge for cricket farming. Early this year, a bacterial infection almost wiped out the whole cricket population at the Mixa Farm.
"We had 210 crates, when the disease attacked we were really disoriented. We took samples to be analysed by experts," Mr Odira says. He adds that they have learned to apply antibiotics to keep the bacteria at bay.
Prof Matthew Dida, head of Maseno University's Department of Agriculture, says maintaining good hygiene is key when rearing crickets. He advises farmers to watch out for predators such as rats, ants, and snakes.
Mr Odira plans to process his cricket powder in large scale by contracting farmers to supply the crickets.
