How the Commercialization of Underutilized Edible Insects Shapes Livelihood Status: Insights from Rural Households in North Central, Nigeria

In Nigeria, there are a ton of untapped edible insect species that present countless business opportunities. Additionally, they are a necessary part of a human diet for sustainability given their substitutionary characteristics over other expensive protein source. It is therefore important to have a thorough understanding of the current degree of its commercialization in order to formulate appropriate policies that will maximize their potential. The objective of this study is therefore to determine the contribution of commercialization of under-utilized edible insects to the livelihood status of rural households. The study was carried out in Benue State due to its high involvement in edible insect commercialization in the North-central zone of Nigeria. A random selection of 5% out of the 368 rural communities was then sampled. A total of 10 respondents were then randomly selected from the sampled 19 communities making a total of 190 respondents that were involved in the commercialization of under-utilized edible insects in Benue State. Of this lot, only 156 were valid for the study. Descriptive statistics, Household commercialization index, livelihood security index and the Ordinary Least Square regression analytical tools were adopted for this study. The study revealed that commercialization is on the high side and cricket, termite, caterpillar, grasshopper and palm weevil were the edible insect species that are popularly commercialized in the study area. About 55.13% of the respondents fell in the low livelihood security class while 44.87% were in the high livelihood security class. Commercialization of under-utilized edible insects significantly enhanced the livelihood status of the rural households. Estimates showed that for every unit increase in commercialization, there is a 6.8% increase in livelihood status of the respondents. The study recommended that farmers be encouraged to commercialize more of these under-utilized edible insects.