How Grasshoppers Sustain Families in Northern Nigeria

Every morning at Wulari, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria, the air fills with the rich aroma of freshly fried, crispy grasshoppers. At a small roadside stand, a long row of customers forms even before the first batch of the day is ready. Ayuba Naomi has spent almost her entire life in the grasshopper trade. 

‘Grasshoppers are widely eaten. Our customers have increased. We send packages to places like Abuja, Lagos, Kano, or even countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. When we get many orders, especially from customers outside Maiduguri, we could sell about three bags in a day’, she told FairPlanet while sprinkling chili powder on a fresh portion for the first customer in line.

Grasshoppers are insects in the order Orthoptera and more than 10,000 species exist, many of which are edible. Insects are widely consumed in many parts of the world and valued as a high-protein food source. As insects have a very efficient food-to-protein conversion rate and therefore require significantly fewer sources to produce the same amount of protein than other animals. Insect farming is also considered more sustainable than conventional livestock production, as highlighted in a 2023 study examining consumer attitudes toward grasshoppers in Nigeria.

Alongside domestic inhabitants, many customers and even resellers from neighboring Cameroon come to Nigeria to buy from Naomi or her colleagues. ‘Retailers, some of them would request the fried ones and we package and seal them in cartons which they import into their country. For some, we would parboil and sun dry and package them in sacks afterwards. They would then fry it themselves there’, she explained while placing the next batch of grasshoppers in hot sizzling groundnut oil. 

Naomi and her colleagues sun dry raw grasshoppers, remove their intestines, wings, and limbs before thoroughly washing, parboiling and lastly frying them. They buy the raw grasshoppers at the local markets where harvesters sell them in large quantities.

Harvesting grasshoppers at night 

Babagana Zarami is one of the many professional grasshopper harvesters in Maiduguri. He has been a harvester for the past ten years. The peak period for harvesting grasshoppers is April to June, when it usually starts raining heavily. The local term in Hausa is ‘Masu Kama Fara’, literally meaning nocturnal grasshoppers harvesting. 

Grasshoppers are harvested in the dark of the night when they are not able to react and leap as fast as they can during the day. Zarami and his colleagues therefore go into the forest at dusk, harvesting for several hours before returning home around midnight. The grasshoppers are harvested by hand or with nets: ‘We pick them on tree leaves and on grasses,’ Zarami told FairPlanet, adding that the best harvest grounds are either around Gajiram or Tungushe, both towns in Borno State.

Entering the forests at night however does not come without risk. ‘Before we go into the forest, we would strap a head lamp to our forehead, wear hand gloves or plastic bags on our hands, and cover our feet with rice sacks or wear rainboots to guard against snakebites and other hazards,’ said Zarami. Additionally, according to him, going deep into the forest is not an option anymore since grasshopper harvesters have been killed by terrorists hiding out in the forest. FairPlanet was unable to independently verify this incident. 

Insecurity in Borno State has however made rural livelihoods increasingly dangerous. Since 2020, Boko Haram has repeatedly targeted communities around Lake Chad, in early 2025, about 40 farmers and fishermen were executed by the Islamist terrorists. In April 2026, four police officers were killed in the area in an attack by Boko Haram and ISWAP, according to local media reports.

Zarami used to catch up to five full bags of grasshoppers in one night. Due to the restriction to avoid the deep forest, the harvest does not bring the same results as before. ‘They are difficult to catch nowadays, even after the rainfall period,’ Zarami said. But their work continues nevertheless. After a night out, Zarami and his colleagues transport their harvest to the state’s capital, Maiduguri. Here the grasshoppers are sold to the wholesalers at the market. Zarami makes around ₦4,000 (€2.50) for 13 kilogrammes of grasshoppers. The wholesaler then resells the same amount to retailers for about ₦6,000 (€3.70).

Global consumption and prospects for increased food security and stable incomes

A 2024 study by the Nigerian Journal of Entomology found that about 66.6 per cent of respondents in selected markets in Kano Municipal and Nasarawa Local Government Areas reported consuming grasshoppers. However, this is not a local phenomenon. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 1,900 edible insect species are consumed globally by about two billion people. On the African continent alone, at least 500 different insect species are used as a food source. 

By 2032, the Middle East and Africa insects market alone is expected to reach US$ 282.9 million. Reasons include the high nutritional value of insects as a source of food for humans, their suitability as feed, as well as the comparably low greenhouse gas emissions associated with them.

According to data from the World Bank about 2.6 billion people worldwide could not afford a healthy diet in 2024 – almost one third of the global population. Coupled with food price inflation and climate pressure straining livestock production, experts argue that grasshoppers and many other edible insects can serve as alternative protein sources. Philip Nyeko, a professor at Makerere University in Uganda, told the Alliance for Science, his research would suggest that insects can be reared in large quantities as a sustainable protein source, helping to address malnutrition and reduce reliance on fish and beef.

Uju Onuorah, a Research Associate at the Nigerian-based Nutrition Drive for Healthy Diet Initiative, confirmed the nutrition benefits of grasshoppers. She told FairPlanet that grasshoppers provide high-quality protein, comparable to beef, chicken, or fish and furthermore also provide important nutrients like iron, zinc, calcium, and vitamin B – a combination providing many health benefits: ‘For example, the iron in insects can help reduce the risk of anaemia, especially in communities where iron deficiency and food insecurity are common. In places like Nigeria, where grasshoppers are already eaten in some regions, they can be a practical and affordable way to improve nutrition’, Onuorah said, adding that grasshoppers would not need as much land or feed as livestock.

However, despite growing consumption rates and scientific evidence for their nutritious and environmental benefits, there is a lack of clear regulations. In many countries there are no strong guidelines on how insects should be farmed, processed, stored, or sold. Onuorah believes that limited research, data and standards make it hard for governments to add insects to food strategies: ‘While we know insects are nutritious, there is still not enough large-scale, locally relevant data on long-term safety, nutrient consistency, and best production’, Onuorah said.