Abstract
Food security is indispensable prerequisite for the continued existence of mankind and his economic activities including adequate food production. The study examined the effect of smallholder socio-economic characteristics on farming households’ food security in Northern Nigeria. Data for this study were obtained from 120 randomly selected farming households, using a structured questionnaire. The results revealed that 81.7% of the households considered themselves food insecure. Furthermore, the majority of households have low incomes and low educational attainment which usually affects food security. There was also a significant negative association between food security and education as well as government policies. The analysis shows that low levels of education and government policies affected rural households. The paper therefore recommended that government and other development agencies should enhance food security among smallholders’ farmers and rural communities through farmer education, promoting labour-saving technologies and facilitating access to market information. In the same vein, the paper infers that Nigeria needs to come up with results oriented food policy which for now it lacks. The public policy makers must as a matter of urgency see food as an essential component of welfares and as such develop sufficient political will to achieve food increase in food production and eventually attain food security for all. Keywords: household food security; household food insecure; smallholder farmers; Nigeria DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-4-16 Publication date: February 29 th 2020
Highlights
In recent years, attention has been focused on strategies for eradicating food insecurity and hunger throughout the world
1.1.2.Results and discussion The results initially profile the communities from the baseline survey before evaluating farming practices and differences in their access to extension support including ICTs. 1.1.3 Socio-economic characteristics of the respondent communities 1.1.4 Age of household heads Data in Table 1 revealed that 15.8% of the household heads were within the age group of 20-30 years, while the overwhelming numbers of household heads (59.2%) were in the middle age range of 31-50 years
The very large percentage of married farmers could be attributed to the fact that respondents needed helping hands to carry out the monotonous process of farming activities. This is implies that there is greater involvement of married people in farming activities in order to ensure household food security. 1.1.8 Educational status of household heads Table1 indicate that 45.8% of the sampled farmers had no formal education, while about 32.5% of the respondents attended primary school
Summary
Attention has been focused on strategies for eradicating food insecurity and hunger throughout the world. The UN’s objectives call for the doubling of agricultural productivity and the incomes of smallholder food producers, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers This is to be achieved through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, the provision of the knowledge, financial services markets, and opportunities for value added and non-farm employment (UN-Habitat 2014; Brown 2016). The achievement of these targets is very important to eliminating hunger and food insecurity worldwide. In Nigeria 26 million people are currently suffering from hunger and malnutrition, while 1.6 million children suffer from acute malnourished in the study area, Kaduna State (UNICEF 2016)
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