ASSESSMENT OF HOUSEHOLDS’ FOOD SECURITY AND PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS OF MAIZE FARMERS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess households’ food security and production constraints of maize farmers in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Primary data through structured questionnaire and interview, administered to randomly select 258 maize farmers from 20 villages and four (4) LGAs of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The research questions were analysed with aid of descriptive statistics, food security index and Tobit regression model. The result indicated that that approximately 62% of the sampled households were food secure. The food security indices for the food secure and insecure households estimated to be 1.84 and 0.47, respectively, while the food security index for the pooled data was 2.10. The value of 1.84 for the food secure household indicates a surplus of 0.84 among the food secured households. The average daily calorie consumption for the food secure household was 4165.63 Kcal, and this implied an excess in calorie consumption of the recommended by 1905.63 Kcal. The regression result showed that the level of food security (P<0.01), output of maize (P<0.01), age of household head (P<0.01), household size (P <0.01), farming experience (P<0.01), and off-farm income (P<0.10) were found to be significantly affecting the food security status of the maize farmers. Inadequate access to credit and storage facilities and low extension service delivery were most critical constraints faced by maize farmers. The study, therefore, recommended that cooperative societies should be encouraged to enable the farmers’ group to have increased access to credit, access to modern farming techniques and access to extension agents.