Qualitative Research as a Basis for Transforming an Annual Plague Into an Economic and Nutrition Opportunity for Youths and Their Families in Madagascar: "From Harmful to Useful Critters" for Sustainable Development.

BACKGROUND: Madagascar is among the 10 highest burden countries for malnutrition. Protein-energy malnutrition, anemia, and vitamin deficiencies are major public health problems. Hunger is exacerbated by an annual locust invasion. The current policy of large-scale government spraying of pesticides from planes is logistically complex, costly, and damaging to the environment. OBJECTIVE: Our research aimed to study the feasibility of turning the locust invasion into a protein-rich food supply for families and an economic opportunity for youth. METHODS: We conducted 20 focus group discussions (FGDs) with females and males aged 18-24 and 25 years or older and with female artisans in 6 swarm communes in Madagascar's south to understand enablers and barriers to collection, preparation, and consumption of locusts. RESULTS: Enablers include consumption by all ages in Antandroy culture and perception of locusts as a delicacy, tasty, and free. Family members have different roles in the collection and preparation of locusts. Local technologies for mass collection include digging trenches in fields and entrapment via sisal netting. Common preparations include boiling in salted water, drying, skewering, frying, and grinding locusts into flour. Disablers include pesticide contamination of locusts and the view that locusts are a famine food. CONCLUSION: Our research provided a first step in demonstrating the feasibility of transforming locust infestations into economic and nutritional opportunities in a fragile environment with high levels of poverty and malnutrition. It contributes to advocacy in Madagascar to end the use of pesticides. It responds to the government desire to address the protein-energy malnutrition burden and youth poverty in an integrated way.

Nature's "Free Lunch": The Contribution of Edible Insects to Food and Nutrition Security in the Central Highlands of Madagascar.

Edible insects are a healthy, sustainable, and environmentally friendly protein alternative. Thanks to their quantitative and qualitative protein composition, they can contribute to food security, especially in Africa, where insects have been consumed for centuries. Most insects are still harvested in the wild and used for household consumption. So far, however, little attention has been paid to insects' real contribution to food security in low-income countries. Entomophagy, the human consumption of insects, is widespread in many rural areas of Madagascar, a country, at the same time, severely affected by chronic malnutrition. This case study was carried out in a region where entomophagy based on wild harvesting is a common practice and malnutrition is pervasive. The data were obtained in 2020 from a survey among 216 households in the rural commune of Sandrandahy in the central highlands of Madagascar. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analysis were used to show the relative importance of insects for the local diet and to test various hypotheses related to food security. Results show that insects contribute significantly to animal protein consumption, especially in the humid season, when other protein sources are scarce. They are a cheap protein source, as much esteemed as meat by the rural population. There are no significant differences in the quantities of insects consumed by poorer versus richer households, nor between rural and urban households. Insect consumption amounts are strongly related to the time spent on wild harvesting. The importance of edible insects for poor, food-insecure rural areas and how entomophagy can be promoted for better food and nutrition security are discussed.