Assessment of Food Insecurity, Household Resource Allocation and Coping Strategies among Rural Farming Households in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed food insecurity, household resource allocation and coping strategies among rural farming households in Ogun, Oyo and Ekiti States. A descriptive survey design was adopted. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 600 respondents from 11,990 registered rural farming household. Data were collected with a validated questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha = 0.91) and analysed using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis (PCA), the Coping Strategy Index (CSI), the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), Pearson's correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and ordered logit regression. Radio (94.5%), friends and neighbours (92.5%) and cell phones (91.5%) were the leading sources of nutritional information. Only 8.0% of households were food secure, while 28.7%, 14.8% and 48.5% were mildly, moderately and severely food insecure respectively. Most households used low (77.0%) rather than medium (18.7%) or high (4.3%) coping strategies. Household resource allocation was strongly related to food insecurity (r = 0.868, p < 0.05), and food insecurity differed significantly across the states (F = 5.99, p < 0.05), with Oyo State recording the highest incidence of severe food insecurity (56.0%). In the pooled ordered logit model, age, monthly income, cooperative membership, resource allocation and the coping strategy index were associated with better food-security outcomes, whereas education and farming experience were positively associated with food insecurity. Educational and extension programmes that build farmers' resource-management skills, together with stronger cooperatives and safety nets, are recommended.