  Insect production for food and feed presents a promising supplement to ensure
food safety and address the adverse impacts of agriculture on climate and
environment in the future. However, optimisation is required for insect
production to realise its full potential. This can be by targeted improvement
of traits of interest through selective breeding, an approach which has so far
been underexplored and underutilised in insect farming. Here we present a
comprehensive review of the selective breeding framework in the context of
insect production. We systematically evaluate adjustments of selective breeding
techniques to the realm of insects and highlight the essential components
integral to the breeding process. The discussion covers every step of a
conventional breeding scheme, such as formulation of breeding objectives,
phenotyping, estimation of genetic parameters and breeding values, selection of
appropriate breeding strategies, and mitigation of issues associated with
genetic diversity depletion and inbreeding. This review combines knowledge from
diverse disciplines, bridging the gap between animal breeding, quantitative
genetics, evolutionary biology, and entomology, offering an integrated view of
the insect breeding research area and uniting knowledge which has previously
remained scattered across diverse fields of expertise.
