Optimizing Nutritional Regimes for Sustainable Weight Gain in House Crickets (Acheta domesticus) for Food Security
KALPANA BISHT *
Department of Agriculture, IIAST, Integral University, Lucknow, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The increasing world demand for sustainable food production calls for creative solutions with least environmental costs and in addressing food security issues. Traditional sources of animal feed, like soy and fishmeal, are aggravating ecological issues, and thus the search for alternative protein sources has become unavoidable. The house cricket (Acheta domesticus) presents a sustainable option as it is highly nutritious, efficient in feed conversion, and has low resource needs. This research assesses the impacts of five different diets, i.e., high-protein, balanced, high-carbohydrate, low-nutrient, and controlled, on the weight gain of A. domesticus. The findings show that a high-protein diet maximally enhances growth, followed by balanced, high-carbohydrate diets. These results demonstrate the potential to enhance cricket nutrition for productivity improvement while using agricultural by-products as feed inputs. Through the identification of best practices in feeding, this research supports scalable and environmentally sound cricket farming, facilitating sustainable agriculture and achieving key food security goals.
Keywords: Sustainable agriculture, food security, alternative protein sources, feed conversion efficiency