Dr. Jacob Paarechuga Anankware is a Ghanaian scientist from Navrongo in the Upper East Region of Ghana. He attended Navrongo Secondary School (Navasco) from 2001-2004. He proceeded to the University for Development Studies from 2005-2009 (BSc Applied Biology), and served as a teaching assistant from 2009-2010. In 2009, he won a US$7000.00 grant with a scientific breakthrough at UDS for developing a natural control for major insect pests. He continued to the University of Ghana from 2010-2012 (M.Phil. Entomology). In the first semester, he won US$13,500.00 from the Bill and Melinda gates foundation to further improve his previous research in Entomology.

Dr. Anankware was a consultant at Vestergaard Frandsen (Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research), Legon from 2012 to 2013. At Vestergaard, he established the largest insectary in Ghana from scratch; developed rearing protocols for major storage pests and conducted bioassays for the popular deltamethrin-impregnated ZeroFly grain storage bag. Paarechuga resigned to pursue his PHD in Entomology at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Nairobi in 2013 and graduated in 2016. Whiles pursuing his PHD, Paarechuga was the Deputy Country Director of Fish for Africa (an NGO speciliased in rearing insects for protein in feed); he helped raised about US$3M from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Swiss National Science Foundation and immediately resigned in August, 2014 and joined Aspire Food Group (An NGO rearing edible insects for human consumption) as the Ghana Country Director.

Dr. Anankware helped build Aspire Food Group from scratch with a US$1million grant from the Bill Clinton Global Initiative and the Hult Prize. He resigned in September, 2016 to concentrate and finish his PHD in November, 2016 and became the first and only entomophagical entomologist in Africa at the time. He was a Post-Doctoral scholar at the University of Michigan, USA, a 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow at the Purdue University, USA, a 2018 Humboldt Scholar at the Humboldt University in Germany, and a 2020 Post-Doctoral Fellow at the New York University School of Medicine; focussing on Research Ethics and Integrity.

Dr. Jacob Paarechuga Anankware is currently a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Horticulture and Crop Productionwith over 40 publications in peer reviewed journals and the Founder and CEO of AnePaare Farms (www.anepaarefarm.com); a global player in entomophagy (eating of insects). He is currently working on a US$1.85 million DANIDA funded project on the nexus of agriculture, nutrition and infectious diseases, and how edible insects can contribute to mitigating the injuriousness caused by iron-deficiency anaemia. His dream is to see a food-secure Africa.
Dr. Jacob Paarechuga Anankware can be reached via Tel: 0246776156 or anankware@yahoo.com