General Objective: Develop a technical system for raising house crickets (Gryllus aff. Assimilis) in controlled environments in the Ecuadorian mountains, which increases biomass production and improves its nutritional composition through the implementation of an automated system for monitoring and controlling variables environmental and controlled experiments over a period of 12 months.
Specific objectives:
- Control the critical parameters of temperature, humidity and photoperiod so that they remain in the optimal operating ranges in 95% of the operating time, through the implementation of an automated environmental monitoring and control system developed in the first 12 weeks of the project.
- Determine appropriate rearing configurations that maximize biomass production and improve cricket survival rates in a given space, through a controlled experimental design with different hatchery operations regimes carried out over a 32-week period.
- Evaluate the improvement in the nutritional composition of the biomass in the experimental hatcheries by controlling the diet and measuring it through laboratory analyzes carried out on cricket flour samples with a frequency of 16 weeks.
- Evaluate the technical and economic viability of the technical domestic cricket breeding system through a cost-benefit analysis and sustainability projections that include a business model that involves the commercialization of cricket biomass or its derivatives at the end of the 12 months of development of the system. project.
Participating Institutions:
UPS, UTI, UCUENCA
Mariela Cerrada project director
Participants:
- Monica Karel Huerta
- René Vinicio Sánchez Loja
- Mauricio Leonardo Villacís Marín
- Germania Elizabeth Vayas Ortega
- Juan Carlos Suárez Pérez
- Silvia Lorena Llamuca Pérez
- Marco Antonio Ríos Ponce
- Daniela Estefanía Zúñiga García
- María Cecilia Vintimilla Alvarez
- Diego Roman Cabrera Mendieta
- Juan Sebastian Botero Valencia
- César Rolando Pesántez Montero
Awarded budget: $39,998.40
Project Status: Awarded
