ICT 기반 식용곤충 스마트 사육사의 성능평가

Abstract

The insect industry has been developed continuously. However, there was no development in specification control devices for edible insects. Therefore, we developed a smart breeding device for edible insects to solve the problems of insect breeding farms. The performance of the smart breeding device for Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis was evaluated. We tested and compared the breeding environment control performance between the smart breeding device and ordinary insect breeding farms in items of air temperature, relative humidity and the insect growth in the breeding room. The experimental result shows that the smart breeding device was hardly affected by the external environment, and the air temperature(25±1.3℃) and relative humidity(65±9.1%) have been kept very stable during the experimental period(May 19~Aug. 2), therefore it provided an optimal breeding environment for the growth of Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis. On the other hand, the breeding devices of ordinary insect breeding farms were easily affected by the external environment, and the range of changes in air temperature(24~31℃) and relative humidity(38~90%) was large and unstable, therefore these environmental changes were very adverse to the growth of Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis. When compared with the weight change of the Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis larva, the weight in the smart breeding device increased sharply in the early stages of breeding, and it was about 52.3% higher than that of ordinary insect breeding farms at 2 weeks after larval standing. Even after that, it was still high at 12.4~2.3% up to 11 weeks, therefore the weight was relatively heavy. As above results, the characteristics of the smart breeding device for Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis are as follows, 1. Provide the optimal environment for the breeding of the insect larva. 2. Reduce disease risk, enable early harvest, increase year-round production. 3. Efficiently improve the environment for the breeding of the insect larva. 4. Reduction of labor force of farmers by providing remote control function. 5. Contribute to improving farm household income. However, it costs some budget to introduce the smart breeding device in a small insect breeding farms. Therefore, in order for farmers to actively introduce it, a government policy support by central or local governments is needed.