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Analysis of Food Security of Farming Households in Kwara State
Subject area: Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities · Area of research: Agricultural Economics
DOI: 10.64388/IREV9I3-1710518-467
Abstract
Food insecurity remains a significant global problem especially in developing countries like Nigeria. This challenge increases human suffering and predisposes young, adult and aged to disease attack, impaired human growth and reduced life expectancy. Hence, this study analyzed the food security and coping strategies among farming households in Kwara State. The secondary data used for the study were General Household Survey data, wave 4, panel 2018/2019 sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics. Two Hundred and three farming households were purposively selected for the study. Descriptive statistics and food security index were used for data analysis. The result revealed that the households spent the mean amount of ?5,637.12 on food items in the last thirty days while the mean household size was 5. Also, the mean annual rainfall was 1213.906mm while the mean adult meal frequency was 3 times per day and the mean age was 51years. Majority (73.4%) of the households were food secure during post-harvest season while 26.6% were food insecure. Food expenditure (p=0.0001) was discovered to most likely increase the food security of the households in Kwara State while increase in household size (p=0.096) may probably decrease the food security. It was revealed that three prominent coping strategies that ranked first, second and third according to weighted mean scores result were eating few kinds/varieties of food, eating less preferred food and eating reduced quantity of food in the last thirty days respectively. This study concluded that increase in food expenditure and decrease in household size have the likelihood of affecting food security status of the farming households in Kwara State during post-harvest season. It was therefore recommended that farming households should be encouraged to spend more on cheaper but nutritive food items and should endeavor to maintain a manageable household size that positively contribute to their food security.
Keywords
Food Security, Food Security Status and Coping Strategy
References
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How to cite this paper
@article{1710518,
author = {Olojede, M. O., Togun, O. M., Rasaki, W. A., Adeoye, A.},
title = {Analysis of Food Security of Farming Households in Kwara State},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2025},
volume = {9},
number = {3},
pages = {297-302},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1710518.pdf},
abstract = {Food insecurity remains a significant global problem especially in developing countries like Nigeria. This challenge increases human suffering and predisposes young, adult and aged to disease attack, impaired human growth and reduced life expectancy. Hence, this study analyzed the food security and coping strategies among farming households in Kwara State. The secondary data used for the study were General Household Survey data, wave 4, panel 2018/2019 sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics. Two Hundred and three farming households were purposively selected for the study. Descriptive statistics and food security index were used for data analysis. The result revealed that the households spent the mean amount of ?5,637.12 on food items in the last thirty days while the mean household size was 5. Also, the mean annual rainfall was 1213.906mm while the mean adult meal frequency was 3 times per day and the mean age was 51years. Majority (73.4%) of the households were food secure during post-harvest season while 26.6% were food insecure. Food expenditure (p=0.0001) was discovered to most likely increase the food security of the households in Kwara State while increase in household size (p=0.096) may probably decrease the food security. It was revealed that three prominent coping strategies that ranked first, second and third according to weighted mean scores result were eating few kinds/varieties of food, eating less preferred food and eating reduced quantity of food in the last thirty days respectively. This study concluded that increase in food expenditure and decrease in household size have the likelihood of affecting food security status of the farming households in Kwara State during post-harvest season. It was therefore recommended that farming households should be encouraged to spend more on cheaper but nutritive food items and should endeavor to maintain a manageable household size that positively contribute to their food security.},
keywords = {Food Security, Food Security Status and Coping Strategy},
month = {September},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I3-1710518-467}
}