Assessment of Food Security Problems and Coping Strategies among Farming Households in Mafa Local Government Area, Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the food security problems in Mafa Local Government Area of Borno State. Primary data were used for the study and were collected from 96 farming households. The data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study revealed that the respondents were involved in the production of crops such as cowpea (92.71%), millet (89.58%), groundnut (72.92%) and rice (62.50). Livestock’s kept include cattle (27.18%), sheep (45.83%), goats (51.04%) and poultry (68.75%). The study also indicates that majority of the respondents adopted up to 50% of the coping strategies identified, indicating that they were food unsecured as reflected by the degree of adoption of coping strategies with only 12.50% of the respondents having compatible coping strategies. The major constraint to food security was the high level of rural poverty representing 93.75% of the respondents. The results equally revealed that there were significant differences in both adoption of coping strategies (calculated X² =57.000; tabulated X²= 16. 919 at P#0.05) and constraints to food security (calculated X² = 76.340, tabulated X² = 23.685 at P#0.05) respectively in the study area. Policy recommendations were made to include improvement in the efficiency of food production through better cropping practices, improved farm technologies and provision of credit facilities in the study area.