Mini-livestock production as a strategy for food security among households in Iwo, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess mini-livestock production as strategy for food security among households in Iwo, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 150 respondents. A structured interview schedule was used to elicit information from the respondents. Household food security was estimated using food security index to establish the food security status of various households. Thus, households were classified into food secured and food insecured. Data were subjected to both descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Most of the respondents were male (72.8 %), they were within the age bracket of 20-24 years, had secondary education (55 %), with household size between 2 to 5 members (45.7%). The study further revealed that 52.3% of the respondents were Christian, were farmers (35.1%) have 5 to 8 years of experience in mini livestock production. They earned more than N5, 000 as income. Also most of the respondents raised mini-livestock purposely for income generation and sourced their flocks from wild (39.1 %). Most of the respondents were raising snail (25.2 %). Majority of the households in the study area were food secured. There is significant and strong correlation between raising of more than one species of minilivestock and food security of the households. Primary occupation and income realized from sales of mini livestock production were found to be significant determinants of food security among households.