Factors influencing food consumption diversity among farming households in selected states in southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

The dietary practices of households have significant repercussions on the quality of life of its members. Dietary practice generally shows the types and variety of food intake and is extremely reliant on the socio-demographic characteristics. Dietary diversity has been
positively associated with the four pillars of food security and all dietary guidelines propose consuming a large variety of foods, across and within major food groups. This paper focuses on the influence of socioeconomic factors on household-level food consumption diversity (FCD) in Nigeria. Since the majority of Nigerians (70 per cent) live in rural areas, an analysis of the food and nutrition security status of rural dwellers will provide a clear picture of what needs to be done to assure food security. A multistage sampling technique was employed for the selection of respondents from a random sample of households proportionate to the size of three states in the south-western agricultural zone of Nigeria, and primary data were collected using an interview guide. The analytical tools used were descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, mean food consumption diversity index and multinomial logit regression model. The results showed that there were significant differences in the socio-economic attributes of farming households in the area of study. Also, farming households (78.9%) in the south-west had a moderate level of FCD; only 8.2% of the farming households had high FCD level and the balance only having a poor FCD. Distance to market, access to information on price, household size, income and farm size were positively and significantly influencing FCD in the study area. However, expenditure on legumes decreases the ability of households
to attain higher food consumption diversity in the study area. It is recommended that government should make food markets more accessible to farmers, disseminating information on prices of food through modern systems and educate farmers on productivity through extension services in order to generate more income to achieve high FCD.

Key words: Food Groups, Consumption Diversity, Farming Household, Diversity Index, Nigeria