Insect frass, as a by-product of insect production, has great potential to be used as a partial or complete substitute for NPK fertilizers. Next to this fertilizers based on insect frass are environmentally friendly and are known to increase plant- and soil resilience by stimulating microbial activity. MeMon has developed a fertilizer that includes a high amount of insect frass to exploit those benefits for both the professional and retail markets.
Insect frass is the by-product of insect breeding and consists of the excrement and exoskeletons of insects, together with the leftover vegetal substrate in which they were bred. Insect-based protein is rapidly emerging as an alternative protein source, both as a potential substitute for soybean-based protein for use in animal feed and for direct human consumption. Insect production is forecasted to grow and will lead to an increasing amount of frass that can be used as a circular NPK-fertilizer and soil improver.
MONTERRA Insect
MeMon introduces a new organic fertilizer based on insect frass named MONTERRA Insect. The fertilizer is made of 80% insect frass from mealworms and 20% vegetal circular raw materials. It is also possible to produce other formulas including insect frass. Insect frass is allowed to be used in organic agriculture (EU 2021/1165 and EU 2018/848).
Nutritional value
MONTERRA Insect has a favourable NPK ratio of 3.5-2.5-2 + 2.3 CaO. It also contains silicon and trace elements like iron and manganese. The fertilizer has a high organic matter content of 80% and a C/N ratio of 11 making it very suitable for organic matter management to, among others, increase the water-holding capacity of soils and fight drought damage.
The fertilizer has a high content of readily-available nutrients that results in similar effectiveness as a mineral NPK fertilizer. Part of the nutrients will become available in the first week after fertilizing while maintaining a continuous mineralisation rate over 100 days. The carbon and nitrogen dynamics of insect frass are shown in figure 1.
Environmentally friendly
Insect frass has the lowest CO2 footprint of all mineral and animal fertilizers. The production of mineral fertilizers costs a lot of energy, resulting in significant CO2 emissions. Compared to other organic animal fertilizers such as cow, chicken and pig manure, insect frass has a significantly lower CO2 footprint and scores much better on all kinds of other environmental aspects such as land use and water consumption. Compared to livestock production the breeding of insects requires as much as 45 times less m2 of land area and 20 times less water usage.
Plant and soil resilience
Insect frass is a natural source of chitin. Chitin is closely related to cellulose and found in the exoskeletons of for example insects and shellfish. Chitin is food for specific micro-organisms in the soil that are able to break down this molecule. This process releases enzymes (chitinases) that stimulate the plant to activate its natural defence mechanisms. This makes the crop less susceptible to diseases and pests. It also stimulates microbial activity and increases the numbers of antagonistic micro-organisms in the soil that predates i.e. specific fungi and nematodes. Therefore, insect frass stimulates plant and soil resilience.
For more information about the insect frass fertilizer, or other formulas containing insect frass, please send an email to [email protected].