| dc.description.abstract | Cricket farming has attracted myriad interests because of its low environmental footprint and high nutritive value. Small-scale production of the insect is carried out in various parts of Kenya. However, limited input resources and rearing systems constrain production. Further, there is scanty information regarding optimal allocation of farm resources. This study investigated growth performance and economic efficiency of Acheta domesticus and Gryllus bimaculatus reared under improvised cage systems. The specific objectives were: (i) to determine the growth performance of A. domesticus and G. bimaculatus (ii) to investigate technical and allocative efficiency of A. domesticus and G. bimaculatus and to evaluate economic efficiency of A. domesticus and G. bimaculatus crickets reared under improvised system. Twenty-day old crickets of both species were separately reared in improvised and conventional cage systems to compare their growth performance. The improvised system comprised of bamboo hideouts, clean scrap blankets for drinking and laying, cut bamboo stem as drinking platter and the ply wood based cages while conventional system comprised of egg carton hideouts, cotton-wool for drinking and laying, plastic
petri-dishes, and plastic buckets. Each group of crickets (100 live crickets) in every cage was daily provided with equal amount of feed and water based on their body weights. Amount of feed, water, substrates and labour used in production was recorded. Forty-nine live crickets per treatment were randomly sampled and weighed weekly. Generalized Additive Model (GAM) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were adopted to model the data therefrom using R (Version 3.6.3). There was no significant difference in growth performance of both cricket species in improvised and conventional systems (p<0.9901). Insects are cold-blooded hence are adaptive to the changing environment. Feed had the highest elasticity hence was the most limiting in production. Price elasticity of labour was the highest thus was the most constraining. Sum of partial elasticities was 0.9902, suggesting decreasing returns to scale. The mean economic efficiency (EE), Technical Efficiency (TE) and allocative efficiency (AE) was 79%, 85% and 92%, respectively. That means that there is 21% potential for the farm to increase its EE, 15% to increase TE and 8% to reduce the cost of production under the current system. Automation of rearing system can be considered especially for large-scale farmers to improve cricket productivity. There is also need to explore alternative cheaper sources of feed and labour to increase cricket production and returns. Determinants of economic efficiency in cricket production under the current system should also be evaluated. Cricket farmers should be sensitized on resource-use efficiency and best practices of improving their production. | en_US |