LAUSR

Food and nutrition security interventions have struggled to supply sustainable protein-rich animal source foods in refugee camps due to high costs required and limited resources. Therefore, crickets farming was extended to refugee settings in Kenya as a potential source of protein and income. This paper discusses how cricket farming was introduced in Kakuma refugee camp and the utilization of crickets as food or feed. A thriving cricket colony was established in a site managed by DanChurchAid (DCA) in Kakuma refugee camp. The cricket colony was used to produce and supply cricket eggs to recruited and trained households who belonged to seven different nationalities. The project beneficiaries were selected using purposive sampling based on a set of predefined characteristics. Each household was provided with a cricket-rearing starter kit consisting of wooden pens, hides (carton egg trays), pin-head crickets, feed and water dispenser (cotton wool). Each household harvested 0.5 – 3.0 kg of fresh cricket per cycle of 1–2 months which was used as food (55.65%) or feed (44.35%). The crickets were processed by either sun drying, blanching or frying. The most dominant processing method was the combination of sun drying and frying that constituted 52.17% of the total processing. There was a significant correlation (P   30% of the recommended daily intake of protein and other micronutrients for women and children of different ages. Crickets showed a huge potential in mitigating food and nutrition insecurity in the camp although further efforts are required to strengthen the crickets value chain as food or feed.