Assessing food security profile of beneficiary and non-beneficiary farming households under Gurara irrigation scheme in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

Globally, food security has been one of the major focuses of discussion particularly in developing country. This study analyzed and assesses the food security profile of beneficiary and non-beneficiary farm households under Gurara dam irrigation scheme in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study examined food security status, coping strategies and its determinants among the two categories of farming households. A cross-sectional survey which involved a multistage sampling procedure was employed to opt for 340 farming households made up of 170 for each category. Information on food security profile was collected using structured questionnaire during the 2019 cropping season. The analytical tools include descriptive statistics, t-statistics and logit regression models. The mean food security index implied that average food-secure individuals used up 127% above their day-to-day calorie needed while food- insecure individuals expended 26% below when compared to 2,260 needed per capita per day. About 74 and 52% of the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries were food secure. The beneficiary mean household dietary diversity score of 6.12 falls under high dietary score compared to 4.57 of medium dietary for non-beneficiaries. Logit regression results showed that the odd ratios of marital status (p ˃ 0.05), educational level (p ˃ 0.01), family status (p ˃ 0.10), farming knowledge (p ˃ 0.01), irrigation income (p ˃ 0.01), farmland (p ˃ 0.01) and dependency ratio (p ˃ 0.01) were the major determining factors influencing the food security status of the farming individuals’ beneficiary. The study concluded that farming households should take advantage of the proximity of the dam facilities, for increase farm yield, to enhance income and improve their standard of living.