Food Security and Coping Strategy amongFarming Households inZuru Agricultural Zone ofKebbi State, Nigeria (original) (raw)

The study was conducted to examine the food security and coping strategies among farming households in Zuru Agricultural zone, Kebbi state, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting a sample of 120 farming households across four local government areas of Zuru zone. Descriptive statistics and Food security index were used to analyze the data. The result indicated that 85.8% of the respondents were males, andwas within the active work-age bracket of 40-49 years, 30.0% had farming experience of 12 years. 45.8% had primary education and 41.6% had an average monthly income of N8,695.125. The average farm size was 4.6 ha and average number of 8 persons within the household. The result on food security index indicates that80.8% of the ithhouseholds were food insecure that were unable to meet 2/3 mean per capita food expenditure (N) 33,619.94. The effective food coping strategy that are highly employed coping strategies during food crisis among others includes buying from market (M = 2.42) was ranked first followed by eating less preferred foods (M = 2.20) was ranked second, reduction in quality and quantity of food consumed and Increased reliance on wild food like hunting (M = 2.16) was ranked third, Sale of livestock/household assets (M = 2.08) was ranked fifth, and borrowing money or food from friends/relatives (M = 2.06) was ranked sixth and were regarded as effective food coping strategyin the study area. It is therefore important to encourage households to intensify combination of their enterprises with off-farm activities that could generate more income for the households and also help to improve their asset base.