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BANGKOK, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The production of edible insect farming in Thailand generates approximately 30 million U.S. dollars in income per year, revealed the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Tuesday.

Currently, there are approximately 20,000 registered cricket farms, mainly in the Northeast region, according to the book entitled "six-legged livestock: edible insect farming, collecting and marketing in Thailand," launched on Tuesday at the Foreign Correspondent Club of Thailand, Bangkok.

The book was co-authored by Yupa Hanboonsong and Tasanee Jamjanya, both are entomophagists from Khon Kaen University in northeastern Thailand, and Patrick Burst from the FAO.

Edible insects are traditional food of northeastern Thais. Vendors selling salty fired various kinds of insects are commonly found on street in Bangkok.

Earlier last week, the FAO also launched a book entitled " Edible Insects: Future prospects for food and feed security" in Rome. The book says edible insects are solution to food security in the next 30 years as the world's population is expected to surpass 9 billion by 2050. The FAO estimates that global food production will need to expand by 60 percent from current levels to meet future demand. Edible insects, the FAO says, is the alternative to conventional livestock as insects are an excellent source of energy, with high protein vitamins and micro-nutrients.

"The world is facing food security issue, but Thais will survive it because Thai know how to eat insects," said Associate Professor Yupa.

Thailand is one of the first countries which successfully farmed edible insects. The fist farming of house crickets was initiated by Tasanee in Khon Kaen in 1996. A few years later, several other species are commonly farmed across Thailand, such as palm weevils and mealworms. Nowadays, some 200 edible insect species are eaten in Thailand. However, only a few insect species, such as bamboo caterpillars, house crickets, giant water bugs and grasshoppers dominate commercial sales in markets. Many species are still collected from the wild and can be bought in local markets seasonally. House crickets and palm weevils have been farmed successfully in many provinces.

Although edible insects are considered popular among Thais, the notion that insects are of poor people food are found in younger generations. The fact that edible insects are actually clean, healthy and environmentally-friendly food needed to be promoted.

The Khon Kaen University has initiated a program to promote edible insects to young generation since 1996. Small-scale cricket farming was introduced to students at primary schools also in the Northeast. The initiative not only provided education, but also produced additional protein for student school lunches. Moreover, cricket cooking fairs and competitions were occasionally organized to build public awareness of nutritional and culinary aspects of edible insects, Yupa said.

Although there are insect farming in Thailand, the supply of some species, such as silk worm pupae, is not sufficient to meet demands, the book says. Approximately 800 tones of edible insects in total are imported annually from Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and China. The economic value of imported insects is estimated around 1.33 million dollars per year.

The collection of edible insects in Thailand is an historic practice, but their farming is relatively new, the book states. In order to improve the edible insect to wider consumers and being a large-scale business, "there is also a need for increased government involvement in the promotion of the industry and setting standards for food safety related to edible insects," the book suggests.

Lee Rose, owner of Thailand Unique, a edible insect-export company, based in Thailand who has been in the edible insect business for eight years said it is not going to be easy to promote edible insects to be mainstream everyday food. The challenge is to have newbies overcome the appearance of the insects.

Rose suggested that to promote edible insects to wilder consumers, insects may have to come in other forms like insect cookies. "Like eating hotdog, you don't have to see the pig," the British businessman added.