Youth Farmers, Shocks and Food Security in Nigeria

Abstract

Shocks are insufficiently handled in many developing countries, including Nigeria. At least 60percent of the farmers in Nigeria lack adequate safety net coverage to mitigate the effect of shocks. Thus, this study examines how shocks affect youth farmers and its possible effect on food security in Nigeria. This study makes use of Wave 4 (2018/2019) of the Living Standard Measurement Study-Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) data, applying the Propensity Score Matching (PMS) model and the two-sample t-test. Findings from the PSM showed that households affected by shocks are less food secure. This is validated from the two-sample t-test; which tests for the potential impact of shocks on household food security. The results showed that though a higher percentage of the households (94.42percent) are not affected by shocks, compared to those affected by shocks (2.58percent), but are worse-off by 0.007percent in terms food security. This means that households who are not affected by shocks are more food secured by 0.007percent. Therefore, based on the findings, it is recommended that appropriate measures be adopted by the Nigerian government, such as providing social protection, safety nets, credit facilities amongst others, to help increase agricultural productivity in order to sustain food security.