Insect and Hydroponic Farming in Africa : The New Circular Food Economy

We did it! Congrats to my fellow co-authors for producing this World Bank book on the new circular food economy. This book presents a heavily disruptive, inclusive, and resilient solution to Africa’s wide-ranging food security challenges. Specifically, it assesses the benefits and costs of using the frontier agriculture technologies to create a circular food economy …

What determines farmers’ awareness and interest in adopting cricket farming?

Farming crickets for human consumption is emerging as a promising novel and sustainable animal-source food production system. Cricket farming in Kenya first began in 2013. Adoption rates, however, have been slower than expected. In our recent paper, me and some of my colleagues from the former GREEiNSECT project present a pilot study of farmers’ awareness …

The Rise of the ‘Google’ Farmer

Last week, I attended and spoke at the 1st African Conference on Edible Insects in Harare, Zimbabwe. During one of the tea breaks, I got chatting with an enthusiastic female farmer: "So, how did you learn about black soldier fly farming?" I asked. "I'm a 'Google' farmer," she procalimed with a toothy grin. Despite never …