As the population increases, so does the demand for food and resources. Insects are rich in proteins, unsaturated fats and low in carbohydrates. They contain all the essential minerals and vitamins like iron, zinc, calcium, potassium, sodium, copper, riboflavin, biotin, and vitamin B9. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), estimated that the world need to increase its food production to feed a worldwide population of more than nine billion by the year 2050. Insects offer so much potential as an alternative food source to meet this need. More than two billion people including various ethnic communities around the world practice entomophagy and consume more than 2000 species of edible insects. Southeast Asian countries and African countries are one of the biggest consumers of edible insects. Due to its health and nutritional benefits, there is an increased demand and interest in European and American countries. Government policymakers, entrepreneurs, educationists, and chefs worldwide are exploring and promoting edible insects. Promoting novel insect-based food that is made of insects or insect ingredients such as insect flour, and insect protein powder could increase consumers and consumption. This review highlights insects as an alternative protein source for future food production. Insects like black soldier flies are used as insect feed for animals in poultry, pigs, and cows and are high in demand. Insects produce significantly less greenhouse gas emissions compared to other livestock. Edible insect farming and entomophagy present an important and sustainable opportunity for the future of food. This could also help generate employment for the rural women and youths as an alternate source of livelihood. Entomophagy has the potential to solve the world’s food hunger and at the same time save the environment. 

Can Entomophagy be a Good Option for Nutrition and Food Security?

The ecological environment of Northeast region of India (NER), with its high humidity, has resulted in greater speciation and genetic diversity of plant, animal, and microbial species. This region is not only rich in ethnic and cultural diversity, but it is also a major biodiversity hotspot. The sustainable use of these bioresources can contribute to the region's bioeconomic development.The review aimed to deliver various perspectives on the development of bioeconomy from NER bioresources under the tenets of sustainable utilization and socioeconomic expansion.Relevant information related to prospects of the approaches and techniques pertaining to the sustainable use of ethnomedicine resources for the growth of the bioeconomy were retrieved from PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Springer from 1984-2023. All the appropriate abstracts, full-text articles and various book chapters on bioeconomy and ethnopharmacology were conferred.As the population grows, so does the demand for basic necessities such as food, health, and energy resources, where insufficient resource utilization and unsustainable pattern of material consumption cause impediments to economic development. On the other hand, the bioeconomy concept leads to "the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value-added products.In this context, major emphasis should be placed on strengthening the economy's backbone in order to ensure sustainable use of these resources and livelihood security; in other words, it can boost the bio-economy by empowering the local people in general. 

Bioeconomy and Ethnopharmacology- Translational Perspective and Sustainability of the Bioresources of Northeast Region of India.

Insects, which are a traditional food in many regions of the world, are highly nutritious and, in particular, a potential source of protein. In the north-eastern parts of India, edible insects are the natural renewable source that plays a vital role in the nutritional system of different ethnic groups. Entomophagy is widely practiced in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland. Various tribes of a state prefer various species of edible insects. Diverse Indian tribes consume approximately 255 insect species of insects as sustenance. The consumption of coleopteran species was the highest, accounting for approximately 34% of all edible insect species, followed by Orthoptera (24%), Hemiptera (17%), Hymenoptera (10%), Odonata (8%), Lepidoptera (4%), Isoptera (2%), and Ephimeroptera (1%). Members of different communities consume edible insects as per their traditional beliefs, and tastes, along with regional and seasonal availability. Therefore, studying the edible and therapeutically important insect species can have economic implications, allowing countries like India to explore approaches to sustainably utilize this enormous natural resource.

/pdf/practice-of-entomophagy-in-north-east-india-a-review-20fgeukw.pdf

Practice of entomophagy in North-East India: A review

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

PP Pradhan

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Practice of entomophagy in North-East India: A review