International Journal of Tropical Insect Science - Call For Papers: Special Issue: Conserving, farming, and commercializing edible insects for a circular food economy: multidisciplinary perspectives
This Special Issue (SI) welcomes submissions based on presentations at the International Symposium on ‘Multidisciplinary Approach to Conserve and Farm Edible Insects for a Circular Food Economy in Uganda (CONFARMED SYMPOSIUM)’, to be held at Busitema University, Uganda, in February 2024. This symposium is co-organised by Busitema University, Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Germany, and Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Germany, with funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The SI is also open to further submissions from across the world that contribute relevant international perspectives related to the theme of the symposium.
Submissions open: 1 February 2024
Submission close: 31 July 2024
Background
The world is facing a serious challenge of sustaining food supply to the rapidly growing human population, whose activities such as consumer habits, industrialization, and pollution excert immense presure to natural food prodcution resources. The situation is exacerbated by climate change, pandemics, civil conflicts and biodiversity loss, among other calamities. For these reasons, hundreds of millions of people are already in serious food crises globally, of which more than one-third are from sub-Saharan Africa. Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 (No Hunger), therefore, calls for multidimensional approaches to improving food production systems through multidisciplinary partnerships.
Forest trees and the insects living in and feeding on them can play an important role in diversifying food production systems, enhancing their environmental and socio-economic performance and improving human nutrition. Producing insects for food and feed has been acknowledged as a sustainable source of animal protein. Insect farming is estimated to require less land and water and to release less carbon dioxide than agricultural production. At the same time, the nutritional content of edible insects is comparable or even superior to that of most conventional food and feed sources. For example, as a source of high-value oils which are low in cholesterol, insects can lower the risk of hypertension and other non-communicable diseases.
In many tropical and subtropical countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, there is a rich insect-eating culture, and wild harvesting is the most common practice. Vegetation is, therefore, a major component of breeding sites and their foraging substrates for edible insects. Efforts to deliberately conserve and mass-rear edible insects are largely a nascent idea. Despite demand for edible insects exceeding market supply during most of the year and their unit prices exceeding those for conventional protein sources in some places, only a small proportion of insects collected from the wild are currently sold in the markets in minimally processed form. Given the significant commercial potential of insect harvesting, farming and related value-addition opportunities in the context of the transition to a bio-economy, there is an urgent need for developing sustainable edible insect production systems and analysing their economic viability, ecological impact and technical feasibility.
Aims and scope of the Special Issue
This special issue will include the presentations at the CONFARMED Symposium as well as submissions from around the world that closely match its theme. The contributions will reflect perspectives on edible insect conservation, farming and commercialization globally from multiple scientific disciplines and in the context of the transition to a bioeconomy. All contributions will present the latest reviews and original articles in their respective fields.
Important Submission Information
To submit a manuscript for this Special Issue in the International Journal of Tropical Insects Science (IJTIS), authors should follow the steps below:
Strictly format the article according to the Instructions for Authors (this opens in a new tab) of the IJTIS Submit their papers through the following website (this opens in a new tab)During the submission process, under “Additional Information” and “Collections”, authors must select that the article is part of a Special Issue and select the Special Issue title “Conserving, farming and commercializing edible insects for a circular food economy: multidisciplinary perspectives.”
Contact
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact one of the Guest Editors (James Peter Egonyu - Jpegonyu@gmail.com (this opens in a new tab), Dietrich Darr - dietrich.darr@hochschule-rhein-waal.de (this opens in a new tab), Matthias Kleinke - Matthias.Kleinke@hochschule-rhein-waal.de (this opens in a new tab), Regina Pohle-Fröhlich - regina.pohle@hs-niederrhein.de (this opens in a new tab) and Niassy Saliou - sniassy@gmail.com (this opens in a new tab)).