COVID-19, food insecurity and dietary diversity of households: Survey evidence from Nigeria

IF 5.6 1区农林科学 Q1 FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Food Security Pub Date : 2022-08-16 DOI:10.1007/s12571-022-01312-w

Bedru B. Balana, Adebayo Ogunniyi, Motunrayo Oyeyemi, Adetunji Fasoranti, Hyacinth Edeh, Kwaw Andam

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引用次数: 18

Abstract

The policy measures of the government of Nigeria to restrain the spread of COVID-19, particularly in the initial three months (April – June 2020) led to significant disruptions to household livelihoods and food security. We investigate the effects of COVID-19 on food security and dietary diversity of households; focusing on the pathways through which income loss, endowments of wealth, social capital, and safety net programs moderate the severity of households’ food security and dietary diversity. Primary data obtained from a telephone survey of 1,031 Nigerian households were analyzed using ordered logit and negative binomial models. Our results show that income losses due to the COVID-19 restrictive measures had pushed households into a more severe food insecurity and less diverse nutritional outcomes. Regarding wealth effects, livestock ownership significantly cushioned households from falling into a more severe food insecurity amid the pandemic. We found that because of the pandemic’s indiscriminate effect across communities, the potential of social capital as an informal support mechanism might have been eroded to enable households to cope with shocks. Furthermore, safety net programs by the government and NGOs did not provide significant protection to households from falling into severe food insecurity and malnutrition amid the pandemic. We suggest three policy propositions – prioritize investment in local job creation to curb income loss; build the wealth base of households (e.g., land tenure security or livestock) to enhance resilience to shocks; and target safety nets and other social support programs spatially, temporally, and across social groups to enhance the effectiveness of such programs amid shocks.

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COVID-19、粮食不安全和家庭饮食多样性:来自尼日利亚的调查证据

尼日利亚政府为遏制COVID-19传播而采取的政策措施，特别是在头三个月(2020年4月至6月)导致家庭生计和粮食安全受到严重破坏。我们调查了COVID-19对家庭粮食安全和饮食多样性的影响;重点关注收入损失、财富禀赋、社会资本和安全网计划缓和家庭粮食安全和饮食多样性严重程度的途径。从对1031个尼日利亚家庭的电话调查中获得的原始数据使用有序logit和负二项模型进行了分析。我们的研究结果表明，由于COVID-19限制措施造成的收入损失使家庭陷入更严重的粮食不安全状况和更少的营养结果。在财富效应方面，畜牧业大大缓解了家庭在疫情期间陷入更严重的粮食不安全状况。我们发现，由于大流行对社区的不分青红皂白的影响，社会资本作为一种非正式支持机制的潜力可能已经受到削弱，从而使家庭能够应对冲击。此外，政府和非政府组织的安全网计划未能在疫情期间为陷入严重粮食不安全和营养不良的家庭提供重大保护。我们提出了三个政策建议:优先投资于当地创造就业机会，以遏制收入损失;建立家庭财富基础(如土地保有权保障或牲畜)，以增强抵御冲击的能力;在空间上、时间上和跨社会群体上针对安全网和其他社会支持项目，以提高这些项目在冲击中的有效性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Food Security FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY-

CiteScore

14.00

自引率

6.00%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Food Security is a wide audience, interdisciplinary, international journal dedicated to the procurement, access (economic and physical), and quality of food, in all its dimensions. Scales range from the individual to communities, and to the world food system. We strive to publish high-quality scientific articles, where quality includes, but is not limited to, the quality and clarity of text, and the validity of methods and approaches. Food Security is the initiative of a distinguished international group of scientists from different disciplines who hold a deep concern for the challenge of global food security, together with a vision of the power of shared knowledge as a means of meeting that challenge. To address the challenge of global food security, the journal seeks to address the constraints - physical, biological and socio-economic - which not only limit food production but also the ability of people to access a healthy diet. From this perspective, the journal covers the following areas: Global food needs: the mismatch between population and the ability to provide adequate nutrition Global food potential and global food production Natural constraints to satisfying global food needs: § Climate, climate variability, and climate change § Desertification and flooding § Natural disasters § Soils, soil quality and threats to soils, edaphic and other abiotic constraints to production § Biotic constraints to production, pathogens, pests, and weeds in their effects on sustainable production The sociological contexts of food production, access, quality, and consumption. Nutrition, food quality and food safety. Socio-political factors that impinge on the ability to satisfy global food needs: § Land, agricultural and food policy § International relations and trade § Access to food § Financial policy § Wars and ethnic unrest Research policies and priorities to ensure food security in its various dimensions.