By Catherine Craig | President, CPALI
July and August are not good months for rearing insects (see rearing calendar below). However, that doesn't mean there is not plenty to do! As you may remember, SEPALI Madagascar has been working with farmers to identify which insects are edible in the area and how to raise them. However, we have not had success in convincing farmers to eat them. To make insects for food more palatable, we have been working with a new group to produce insects to make a protein powder that can be integrated into Malagasy snack food. But we have not given up on introducing insects and insect farming in the Makira area. We would like to involve school children and tackle some insect biology lessons. Our only problem is that we do not have the staff to do this and have been looking for a partner.
You can imagine how exicted I was when I recieved a message from Johnnah Ranariniaina, education coordinator from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Maroantsetra, reporting that WCS was interested in working with the SEPALI team to introduce "insects for food" in their after school program! SEPALI Madagascar has already done a lot of background research to find out which insects can be raised easily in the Makira area. One insect that is already eaten by our farmers' generation are the funny looking Homoptera in the family Fulgoridae (See our December 2, 2015 report on them). Fortunately the rearing season is starting in September! In the spring children can turn to the lowland rice fields to collect dragonfly larvae.
Working in the schools is a great investment to find an inexpensive way to increase dietary protein, especially if the insects are farmed. Perhpas an after school program with WCS could involve cooking classes - after all who doesn't likeot eat!
The moth matching game has been completed by Kulea Games and we have distributed packs of cards to schools. We hope that moth matching will add another dimension to education on insects for food. You can play moth matching on your ipads or iphone. The kids in Maroantsetra can play with hard copies! I have played both ways and it is a blast! We are still looking for more beta testers - let me know, craig@cpali.or, if you want to play on you ipad or iphone and I will arrange for you to receive a free copy.
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