Refugee Insect Production for Food and Feed

What is RefIPro?

Refugee Insect Production for Food and Feed (RefIPro) project is an innovative, and potentially high impact, food security and nutrition intervention, combined with an ambitious research agenda.

The overall mission is to improve the health, nutrition and income generating opportunities of refugees in the Kyaka II settlement in Western Uganda. The project has 2 specific objectives:

Improved nutrition and health of refugee and host community children through the production of mealworm.

This objective focuses on production of mealworm for food in both communities and schools. It will document the effect of adding mealworm to school meals on health and nutrition indicators of school children, by implementing an intervention study in three schools in and around the Kyaka II settlement. This study will be the first to examine the use of mealworm for enrichment of school meals, and will in particular contribute with new knowledge on the potential for edible insects to improve gut health of children in low-income countries.
Improved incomes of refugees and host community members through production of Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL).

The project will support a total of 965 refugees and host community members to produce BSFL for sale as feed, with the aim of providing a novel income generating opportunity for refugees. The project will strengthen local farmers associations and local authorities to provide continuous support to local BSFL producers, and will ensure linkages with potential buyers.
A research component will provide new knowledge about the feed substrates available for BSFL production in a refugee context, including the quality and quantity of organic waste available, and will also include a pilot of the collection and processing of human waste for BSFL production.
The project will generate knowledge that can be potentially be used to improve the livelihoods of millions of refugees, not just in Uganda, but globally.
Together, the proposed interventions and research activities aim to demonstrate how edible insects such as mealworm and soldier fly larvae can be sustainably produced and processed by refugees in a manner which turns locally available organic waste into nutritious food and feed, thereby improving nutrition, health and incomes among both refugees and host communities.