Knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of small holder farmers towards cricket rearing and consumption in Arapai subcounty, Soroti district.
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Date
2026
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Busitema University
Abstract
Edible insects like crickets are recognized as a sustainable source of protein to address global challenges of food security, nutrition, and environmental sustainability owing to their ability to offer high nutritional value, efficient feed conversion, and low ecological impact compared to conventional livestock. Despite these advantages, adoption of cricket farming for human food remains limited in many rural communities. The study sought to evaluate farmers’ awareness and understanding of crickets as a source of food, examine their attitudes toward cricket rearing, assess their willingness to adopt cricket farming as part of their agricultural activities, and identify key factors influencing community acceptance of cricket rearing. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 385 smallholder farmers across four parishes of Arapai Subcounty in Soroti District, eastern Uganda. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data on farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions in Arapai subcounty. Data was cleaned, coded, and entered into Microsoft Excel before being exported to R software. The analysis was conducted in three phases: Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses. The study revealed low baseline awareness where 80.3% (n = 309) reported never heard of cricket farming, while only 19.7% (n = 76) said they had heard about it. Among the 76 with prior awareness, the primary source cited was from fellow peasants (n = 14, 18.5%), followed by media (n = 3, 3.9%), training (n = 2, 2.6%), and the least mentioned source was from extension workers (n = 1, 1.3%). On a positive note, 76.9% of respondents expressed willingness to rear crickets; 79.2% were willing to consume cricket-based products; 77.0% were open to adopt cricket farming; and 89.2% expressed that they would trust institutions like NGOs, Universities and government to support them in cricket farming. Male respondents (84.0%) were willing to rear crickets compared to female respondents (71.5%), and willingness increased with education, from 55.6% among respondents with no formal education to 92.9% among those with tertiary education. The barriers perceived to cricket rearing were predominantly market-related, with lack of buyers/market access (55.2%), low consumer demand (45.2%), and general ignorance about cricket-based products (43.1%) cited as the leading constraints. These results suggest that targeted awareness campaigns, extension training, and market development interventions are likely to be the most effective levers for accelerating cricket farming adoption among smallholder farmers
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Undergraduate research report
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Citation
Musiime, C. (2026). Knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of small holder farmers towards cricket rearing and consumption in Arapai subcounty, Soroti district. [Unpublished undergraduate research report]. Busitema University.