Use of Insects as a protein source for broiler production under Indian conditions

Poultry meat contributes more than 50% Pof total meat market in India (DAHD, 2019).

- Pooja Singh,Amit Kumar Singh,Neeraj,Ramesh Pandey

Poultry meat contributes more than 50% Pof total meat market in India (DAHD, 2019). It becomes important to produce those poultry birds economically and effectively. Insects are supposed to be efficient and high quality sustainable protein source which can contribute to the global feed security. With the increasing human population, which is expected to reach about 9 billion in the year 2050 (FAOstat, 2019), the demand for animal protein is expected to accelerate in the near future. Also, the cost of production of major protein sources such as soybean meal and fish meal is very high and the resources used for their production may also get limited in future. Therefore, an alternate source of animal protein is needed to meet this alarmingly increasing demand and insect meal has the potential to meet this demand. The insect meal which is a good source of amino acids and fatty acids may act as a promising protein source for the poultry industry. In addition to that, when the feed cost accounts for 65-70% of the total cost of poultry production, a cost-effective animal protein source is the need of time to make the broiler production profitable and sustainable for small scale farmers. Insects too contribute in the circular economy by converting the low-value waste into high quality protein source for broiler production. In this way insects may help to reduce the waste loads of the environment and also produce lower carbon footprints. Thus, it can be concluded that insect can play an important role in production economic and sustainable protein source for poultry.

Use of Insects in broiler feeding

Insects have been a part of poultry diet since ancient time, when they were allowed for free range feeding system.