ANALYSIS OF FARM HOUSEHOLD AND COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA,

ANALYSIS OF FARM HOUSEHOLD AND COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA,

Abstract:

This study was conducted to analyze farm households and community food security in Kaduna state, Nigeria, by purposefully choosing two of the four agro ecological zones of the state’s ADP; and the random choice of four LGAs and eight communities. The analytical tools used include descriptive statistics, Food Security Index (FSI), multiple regression (Tobit), Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit and Coping Strategy Index. Data were collected using structured questionnaire administered to 244 farmers and the use of focus groups. The result of the analysis revealed that about 80% of the respondents were in the age range of 21-50 years and 87% had farming experiences more than 10 years. In addition, about 66% of the farm households had farm income less than N200,000 with an average N180,914.50k per annum, while for non-farm income sources, only 69% of the respondents acquired income outside of farming activities at a yearly average of N130,407.10k. Average farm holdings was 2.05ha as 75% of the farmers acquired farmlands through inheritance. The expenditure pattern of households revealed that food expenditure accounts for 52% of total household expenditure, with a yearly average found to be N113,351.10k. The chunk (72%) of food expenses were on starchy food items, while for non-food expenditure, per capita household medical expenses, came highest at an average of N21,093.03k, accounting for 21% of total non-food expenditure annually. Most farmers sourced their food from both own production and market buying. Only 41% of the respondents had experienced food shortages in the last five years occurring mostly between July and August. Amongst others, the cause of food shortage was noted to be the inadequacy of money to procure food during lean seasons. Furthermore, the FSI of households obtained showed that 66% of respondents were able to meet the daily calorie intake of 2260 kcal per capita. The average FSI for food secured and insecure households were 1.45 and 0.85 respectively. The determinants of food security status as obtained from Tobit regression were food security status perception, adjusted household size, per capita annual expenditure on health of family members (at 1%), dependency ratio (at 5%), access and usage of consumer credit and total crop production in grain equivalent (at 10%). The assessment of community food security shows the profiling of each community’s socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, profile of community food resources, assessment of household food security, assessment of food availability and affordability and assessment of community food production. The result of food coping strategy analyses shows that the highly employed coping strategies during food crisis amongst others, included buying from market (90%), eating less preferred food (79%), borrowing money/food from friends/relations (72%) and sale of livestock (62%). The coping strategy index also shows that about 41% of those that employed various coping strategies had severe food crisis. Significant relationships were noted between food insecurity level of severity, level of commitment to commercial motorcycling and benevolent non-farm income (gifts). Based on the results of the survey, recommendations were given to the farmers and the government accordingly.

ANALYSIS OF FARM HOUSEHOLD AND COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA,

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