Impact of insecurity on food production in Igabi LGA, Kaduna State

Abstract

The study assessed the impact of insecurity on food production in Igabi Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State, Nigeria.  Agriculture contributes 42 percent of Nigeria’s GDP and engages over 65 percent of Nigeria’s workforce. The sector is constrained by  challenges recently characterized by insecurity, leading to low output and inefficient production tools and infrastructure. A total number  of 399 farmers were selected from 145,744 farmers’ households using the Yamane equation. Two-stage sampling technique was used to  determine the LGA where the research was conducted. Purposive sampling was used to determine the LGA out of the 23 LGAs in the  state, and a simple random sampling technique was used to determine the farmers in the research area. The farmers were administered  a well-structured questionnaire to collect their data on demographic characteristics and agricultural-related activities that answered  questions on the impact of insecurity on food production in the study area. Data collected were analyzed using simple descriptive  statistics and a chi-square analysis (at p< 0.05). Findings from this study reveal that insecurity resulting from kidnapping, banditry, and cattle rustling constitute 96.4 percent of the insecurity affecting the study area, which leads to food shortage, and the high price of food  commodities between 63.5 percent and 34.1 percent, respectively. Also, 66.3 percent of the farmers are in extreme poverty, 28.7 percent are moderately poor, with only 5.0 percent are considered not poor. Therefore, findings from this study showed that there is a strong link  between insecurity and food production in the State. Furthermore, more stakeholders from the State and LGAs should be engaged with  the relevant security agencies to curtail this menace. Also, modern farming equipment should be encouraged to avoid farming only in the  bushes, where kidnappers threaten Nigerians' well-being.