Rural Livelihoods and Food Insecurity among Farming Households in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Rural livelihoods have been the subject of empirical analysis in development studies because they play important roles in mitigating Food Insecurity (FI). In Nigeria, the incidence of FI is higher among the rural populace, particularly the peasant farming households, than urban households. Previous studies have linked aggregate measure of rural livelihoods to FI with little attention to contributions of specific components to FI. Hence, the influence of rural livelihoods on FI status of farming households was investigated. Primary data were collected from 400 farming households in Osun and Ekiti states of Southwestern Nigeria using semi-structured questionnaire. The result shows that age of household heads was 51.9±11.4 years, while household size was 8±2.9 persons. Households that were Core Food-insecure (CFI), Moderately Food-insecure (MFI) and Non Food-insecure (NFI) were 4.38%, 35.89% and 59.73%, respectively. The probability of being NFI was increased by age (0.0115), Being Married-BM (0.1073), Household Size-HS (0.0166), Post Primary Education-PPE (0.1090), Access to Irrigation-AI (0.1376), rain forest zone (0.1417), and Financial Asset-FA (0.1630), while extension services (-0.0040) and Access to National Grid-ANG (-0.1620) reduced it. Extension services (0.0030), farming experience-FE (0.0052), and ANG (0.1202) increased the probability of being MFI, while age (-0.0085), BM (-0.0706), PPE (-0.0809), HS (-0.0123), AI (-0.1020) and rain-forest zone (-0.1051) reduced it. Extension services (0.0011), FE (0.0018), and ANG (0.0419) increased the probability of being CFI, while age (-0.0030), BM (-0.0277), PPE (-0.0282), HS (-0.0043), AI (-0.0356), rain-forest zone (-0.0366) and FA (-0.4210) reduced it. On-farm rural livelihood relative to combined on-farm with off-farm and non-farm, reduced food insecurity among farming households in Southwestern Nigeria.