Farmers urged to cultivate ‘golden harvest’ of crunchy palm weevils
Villagers in Phayao’s Phu Sang district are being encouraged to raise palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) as this edible insect can earn them as much as 300 baht per kilogram.
“Palm weevil larva is a Thai delicacy and is in high demand among restaurants, street food vendors and snack manufacturers,” Sasithorn Assarat, chief of Pasak subdistrict, said on Saturday.
“Raising palm weevil is extremely easy. We start by putting five pairs of adult male and female palm weevils in a plastic tub and feeding them with dried tapioca plants leftover from tapioca harvest.
“The female will lay eggs, then small maggots will come out and grow to become larvae of edible size in about 35 days,” she added. “The larvae can be sold for between 250 and 300 baht per kilo, while adult weevils that can be used for breeding can earn between 1,600 and 2,000 baht per kilo.
“Raising palm weevil can be a good source of income for tapioca farmers during the off season,” she said. “Plus, they can put harvest waste which has no economic value to the fullest use and reduce the need to burn their fields to get rid of it.”
Palm weevil is a great source of protein and can be eaten raw as a side dish, though the most popular method is deep frying it until yellow and eating it as a snack with seasoning sauce.
