Farmers’ Coping Strategies to Households Food Insecurity in Ezinihitte Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State-Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed farmers’ coping strategies for household food insecurity in Ezinihitte Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo state, Nigeria. A multistage random sampling procedure was used to select 90 farm households from whom data were elicited using a semi-structured interview schedule. Data were analysed using means, frequencies, percentages, and food security index. Results showed that the farm households' incidence of food insecurity and gap were 0.5111 and 0.4769 respectively, while the severity of food insecurity was 0.2388. Reduced number of meals eaten per day (78.26%), reduced size of meals (73.91%) and less expensive food were identified by 71.74% of the food insecure as coping strategies for food insecurity by farm households. Meanwhile, 75.56% and 70.00% of the farm households reported that low income and poor access to farm inputs were problems constraining their achievement of food security. The study concluded that a higher percentage of the farm households in the study area were food insecure. It was recommended that heads of farm households be encouraged to join and participate in cooperative societies to improve their food security status and access to production resources.