FOOD SECURITY STATUS: ITS DRIVERS AND COPING STRATEGIES AMONG VEGETABLE FARMING HOUSEHOLDS

1 Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria 2 Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria ABSTRACT. Food insecurity remains a major challenge worldwide, especially among the rural areas of developing nation. Women and children are most vulnerable to this phenomenon. However, while many studies have assessed farming households’ food security status in general, there is dearth of information on vegetable farmers’, who are mostly women, food security status in particular. This study, therefore, investigated the food security status of vegetable farming households, its drivers and coping strategies in Kwara State, Nigeria. Descriptive statistics, food insecurity index and logistic regression were used to analysed data collected from 180 respondents. The findings showed that food insecurity remains a major challenge in rural areas as only 45.55% were food secure. The food secure group surpassed the food security line by 17%. Food insecure group fell below the food security line by 36% with a daily average calorie intake of 1581.35 kcal. Annual income (p< 0.1), cooperative membership (p< 0.1), vegetable production (p< 0.05) and access to credit (p< 0.05) were the significant factors enhancing their food security status, while household size (p< 0.01) negatively influenced it. The widely used food insecurity coping mechanisms by the households were eating less expensive food, eating wild fruits, reducing rational consumption, allowing children to eat first, borrowing money to buy food, buying food on credit and skipping meal within a day. The study recommends encouragement of vegetable production through provision of credit facilities to the farmers as this would enhance their food security status.