Socio-Economic Analysis of Food Security Status among Rural Farming Households in Kaduna State, Nigeria

A. S. Sambo¹, A. Mustapha², K. Abdulaziz³ & M. M. Bada⁴

¹Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, School of Agricultural Technology,

Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria, Samaru-Kataf Campus

²Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Bayero University, Kano

³Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, Plot 223D, Cadastral Zone B6, Mabushi-Abuja

⁴Bank of Agriculture, Maiduguri Main Branch, Maiduguri

Email: ashafasambo@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

The study analyzed food security situation among rural farming households in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used for selecting samples for the study. In the first stage, four Local Government Areas were purposively selected based on their large concentration of farming households, from which two rural communities were each selected. The last stage involved simple random selection of 20% of the farming households from each rural community selected in stage two, to give a total of 120 households as the sample size for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, household food security index and binary logistic regression model. Results of socio-economic characteristics of farming households showed that the mean age of household heads in the study area was 39 years, majority (87.5%) of the households was headed by males and 83.3% of the households’ heads were married. Major occupations of the household heads were farming and trading representing 40% of all the household heads and over 59% of them had secondary school education. The results further show that average household size in the study area was 11 persons. Also, 40% of the household heads had farming experience of between 14 and 22 years and mean annual households income was ₦557,783.00. Majority (55.8%) of the household heads claimed not to have access to extension services. Results of food security status of farming households revealed that 67% of the households were food secure and 33% were food insecure. The Mean Per Capita Food Expenditure (MPCFE) and food security line were ₦3,549.61 and ₦2,366.41 respectively. Results of logistic regression analysis reveal that coefficients of farming experience and access to credit were positive on households’ food security status and significant at 5% level of probability; while those of household size and monthly income were also positive and significant at 1% level of probability. The results further shows that the most common food insecurity coping strategy used by farming households was borrowing money to buy food items, which was used by 60% of the households and ranked 1^st.The study concluded that majority of the farming households were food secure. It recommends that low interest credit should be made available and easily accessible by commercial banks and other lending institutions to farmers since most of households rely on borrowing money to purchase food items in situations of food insecurity.

Keywords: Socio-economic, Assessment, Food Security, Farming households, Kaduna State.