Assessing Vulnerability to Food Insecurity and Coping Strategies Adopted by Rice Farming Households in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

Food insecurity remains a development challenge globally, particularly in the developing world. Several studies have been carried out to address the challenge. However, these studies hardly distinguished between food insecurity and vulnerability to food insecurity due to the overlap of the two concepts thus leading to targeting error. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine factors influencing vulnerability to food insecurity and coping strategies adopted by rice farming households in Ekiti state, Nigeria. The study used a well-structured questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 420 rice-farming households in the study area. Descriptive statistics, Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS), Tobit regression analyses, and a Likert-type rating scale were used to analyze the data collected for the study. Results showed that there are more male rice farmers than their female counterparts and that engagement in rice production declines as farmers age beyond 60 years. Some of the factors influencing vulnerability to food insecurity include adult equivalence, illness, and Fulani herdsmen challenge. Others include years of formal education, size of cultivated land, membership of an agricultural production group, agricultural commercialization, and contact with extension agents. Therefore, for farmers to be protected from vulnerability to food insecurity, the government should resolve the lingering farmer-herder conflict, intensify family planning campaigns, encourage farmers to produce for the market, join production and marketing groups such as cooperatives, and provide farmers with education in form of agricultural extension training.