Agricultural Products as Potential Enhancers of Growth, Fecundity, and Nutritional Value in Field Crickets

This study aimed to evaluate selected agricultural products and by-products as sustainable alternatives to soybean meal in the diets of field cricket, including cassava leaves, chaya leaves, sunn hemp, Napier grass, Caribbean stylo, Thapra stylo, tomato pomace, and rice wine residue, which contained crude protein levels ranging from 6.52% to 37.10%. These materials replaced 50% of soybean meal in diets formulated to provide 20-23% protein. After 45 days, crickets fed soybean meal supplemented with chaya leaves produced the highest yield (340.33 g/ box), which was not significantly different (p>0.05) from those receiving cassava leaves. Fecundity was greatest in the chaya leaf treatment (2,589.33 eggs/ female), significantly exceeding that of the other groups (p0.05) from the control diet (60.02%).