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 socio-economic 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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
Abstract

CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
1.1           Introduction
1.2           Problem Statement
1.3           Objectives of the Study
1.4           Justification of the Study
1.5           Scope and Limitation of the Study

CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review
2.1           The Concepts of Food Security
2.1.1       The Origin of Food Security
2.1.2       Community Food Security Concept
2.1.3       The Concept of Consumption Pattern
2.1.4       Food Coping Strategy Concept
2.1.4.1   Coping Strategy Pattern
2.2           Food Security Measurement: The Focus on Chronic Hunger and Poverty
2.2.1       Approaches to Measurement of Food Security
2.2.1.1   Food economy approach
2.2.1.2   Group ratings
2.2.1.3   Dietary diversity
2.2.1.4   Coping strategy index
2.2.1.5   The food security module
2.2.2       Community Food Security Assessment
2.2.3       Causes of Food Insecurity
2.2.4       Determinants of Food Security
2.3           An Overview of the Food Situation in Nigeria: Current Level of
Food Security in Rural Areas
2.3.1       Food consumption in Nigeria
2.3.2       Sources of food
2.3.3       Food consumption by livelihood measure of income


CHAPTER THREE
Methodology
3.1           The Study Area
3.2           Sampling Procedure
3.3           Data Collection
3.4           Analytical Techniques
3.4.1       Descriptive statistics
3.4.2       Food security index (FSI)
3.4.3       Multiple regression analysis
3.4.4       Community food security assessment
3.4.4.1   Profile of community socioeconomic and demographic characteristics 
3.4.4.2   Profile of community food resources
3.4.4.3   Assessment of household food security and coping strategy
3.4.4.4   Assessment of food availability and affordability
3.4.4.5   Assessment of community food production
3.4.5       Coping strategy index (CSI)
3.5           Selected Variables and Their measurement

CHAPTER FOUR
Results and Discussion
4.1           Demographic and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Respondents
4.1.1       Age of Household Heads
4.1.2       Years of Farming Experience of Household Heads
4.1.3       Sex Distribution of Household Heads
4.1.4       Marital Status of Household Heads
4.1.5       Household Size
4.1.6       Children Age Distribution
4.1.7       Household Heads’ Level of Education
4.1.8       Respondents Level of Involvement in Agriculture
4.1.9       Household Farm Income
4.1.10     Household Non-Farm Income
4.1.11     Major Economic Activities of Household Heads
4.1.12     Households Farm Size Distribution
4.1.13     Land Ownership Structure and Fragmentation
4.2           Expenditure and Consumption Pattern of Farm Families
4.2.1       Household Annual Food Expenditure Pattern
4.2.2       Household Annual Non-Food Expenditure Pattern
4.2.3       Farmers Daily Expenditure
4.3           Household Food System
4.3.1       Source of Crop Food
4.3.2       Source of Animal Protein
4.3.3       Use of Crop Surpluses
4.3.4       Food Shortage and Causes
4.3.5       Food Shortage Solution
4.3.6       Market Patronage
4.4           Household Food Security Status
4.5           Determinants of Household Food Security Status
4.6           Assessment of Community Food Resources and Community Food Security
4.6.1       Profile of Community Food Resources
4.6.1.1   Animal protein sources
4.6.2       Assessment of Household Food Security
4.6.3       Assessment of Food Availability and Affordability
4.6.4       Assessment of Community Food Production Resources
4.7           Food Coping Strategy Analyses
4.7.1       Frequency of Food Coping Strategy (FCS)
4.7.1.1   Buying from the market
4.7.1.2   Eating less preferred food and rationing adults meals
4.7.1.3   Borrowing money/food from friends or relations
4.7.1.4   Sale of livestock and consumption of seed stock
4.7.1.5   Working for money, sending out children to work and scavenging
4.7.2       Coping Strategy Index (CSI) and Severity
4.7.3       Correlation of Income Shocks with CSI
4.7.4       Correlation of Food Coping Strategies with CSI

CHAPTER FIVE
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1           Summary
5.2           Conclusion
5.3           Recommendations
5.3.1       The farmers
5.3.2       The Government
5.4           Contribution to Knowledge and Suggestion for Further Studies
References
Appendixes

CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
1.1        Introduction
Reducing food insecurity continues to be a major public policy challenge in developing countries. Almost 1 billion people worldwide are undernourished, many more suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, and the absolute numbers tend to increase further, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (FAO, 2008). Recent food price hikes have contributed to greater public awareness of hunger related problems, also resulting in new international commitments to invest in developing countries agriculture (Fan and Rosegrant, 2008). Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranking of Nigeria as 40th among 79 food deficient countries in 2011, 40th again in 2012, 39th in 2013 and 38th in 2014 remains unacceptably high and has indicated that no remarkable progress has been made from all efforts geared towards hunger reduction (GHI, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014). The GHI Report (2012) further posit that rising food prices, malnutrition and deaths as a result of wide-spread poverty is an indication of the prevalence of food insecurity in the country. It is also a sign of extreme suffering for millions of poor people.
Agriculture is however one of the most important sectors of the Nigerian economy, it contributes more than 40% of the total annual GDP in 2010 (NBS, 2012). The sector employs about 70% of the labour force and accounts for over 70% of the non-oil exports and, perhaps most importantly, provide over 80% of the food needs of the country (Adegboye, 2004 and NBS, 2012). Agriculture provided adequate food for the Nigerian populace both in quantity and quality during the era before independence in 1960. Helleiner (1996), showed that in Nigeria, between 1950 and 1960, food production was at subsistence but self-sufficient level. The economy was experiencing rapid growth of 4.5% between 1958 and 1963, the driving force being a booming trade in agricultural commodities export, growing annually at 5.5%. The first decade of Nigerian independence (1960-1970) opened the way to food shortages as a result of declining agricultural production and increasing population growth rate. The increase in population at a rate considerably higher than the rate of increase in food production has continued to widen the gap between domestic food supply and domestic demand. This disparity has led to rising food prices (85-125% increases in many Nigerian cities) and declining foreign exchange earnings from agricultural exports. The interaction of these factors has led to food insecurity and the idea of self-sufficiency is becoming more and more difficult to achieve due to declining agricultural production and inefficient food marketing system (Helleiner, 1996).
In order to ensure self-sufficiency and food security in Nigeria, a number of agricultural development institutions and reforms were embarked upon by the federal government since 1970. These programmes include: National Accelerated Food Production Programme, NAFPP (1973); Agricultural Development Project, ADP (1975); Operation Feed the Nation, OFN (1976); River Basin Development Authorities, RBDA (1977); National Seed Service, NSS (1977); Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme, ACGS (1977); Rural Banking Scheme, RBS (1977); Green Revolution, GR (1979); Directorate of Food, Road and Rural Infrastructure, DFRRI (1986); National Agricultural Land Development Authority, NALDA (1992); National Fadama Development Projects, NFDP (1992); Nigerian Agricultural Cooperatives and Rural Development Bank, NACRDB (2000); National Agricultural Development Fund, NADF (2002); Commodity Marketing and Development Companies, CMDC (2003), Root and Tubers Expansion Programme, RTEP (2002), and the Food Security Thematic Group, FSTG (2009).
According to Ihimodu (2004), empirical records of many of these programmes and projects are not impressive enough to bring about the expected transformation of the sector. The food self-sufficiency ratio has fallen from 98% in early 1960s to less than 54% in 1986. In 1990, 18% of the population (14.4 million) was estimated to be critically food insecure and this increased to 36% (32.7 million) in 1992 and further increased to 40.7% in 1996. As at 2004, over 40% of Nigeria’s estimated population of 133 million people was food insecure (Idachaba, 2004). In 2014, the FAO’s estimate of Nigerians living under the poverty line of less than $1.25 a day was put at 68% (estimation for 2005-2012) while Ajayeoba (2010), put the figure for food insecure Nigerians at 53 million of the estimated 150 million population.
Given the above figures, it is obvious, that the continuous efforts of the government will not arrest the food insecurity situation and hence resort to complement its internal effort with importation of food. Table 1.1 shows the Nigeria’s food imports indicators from 1981-2013. The idea of importing food to meet the food shortage was later dropped because food import bill grew substantially and was taking a larger share of the Gross Domestic Product. For example as indicated in Table 1.1, in 1989, Nigeria’s food import bill was about N2.3billion (about 0.6% of the total GDP) while it stood at about N254.6 billion in 2003 (about 2.57% of the total GDP). It peaked very recently in 2011 when food importation was 8.01% of total GDP, but in 2012, it was as high as N1.4447 trillion which accounted for about 3.56% of the total GDP. The food problem was not peculiar to Nigeria. It attracted a global attention as more than 2 billion people throughout the developing countries and some other 40 millions in developed world do not have enough food to meet their basic needs and millions more experience hunger, malnutrition, growth retardation and sometime death due to starvation (FAO, 2010).....

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