Assessing food security status among farming households in Ibadan metropolis, Oyo state, Nigeria.

Abstract

This study assessed the food security status of farming households in Ibadan metropolis. Some food security factors (energy and protein level, after their conversion) were cross tabulated with urban farming using eighty-nine well-structured questionnaires and through odds and odds ratio. The questionnaires, which were randomly administered using stratified random sampling technique, were distributed between both the densely and sparsely populated areas of the Ibadan metropolis. Checklists were equally used to collect some other side information as families responds to series of question. Those involved in crop production produced mostly staple crops and seasonal crops such as maize, cassava, vegetable, yam, melon while poultry production is the most common form of animal production. Also some of the respondents combined both animal and crop production together. The levels of individual families\' consumption of these food items were converted. Education relative to urban farming practices was found to influence the food security status of the respondents. This is justified from the χ2 value of 9.263 and 6.443 returned for this factor and which is significant at 0.05 level of significance. Keywords : Food security; Odds; Urban farming Moor Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 6 (1&2) 2005 pp. 52-59