ASSESSMENT OF FOOD SECURITY AMONG COCOA FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

Özet

The study examines food security among cocoa farming households in Osun State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the 120 respondents used in this study. Analytical techniques used were the descriptive and inferential (Food security index and Logistic regression) statistics. The result revealed that 49.17% of the respondents were male, while female were 50.83%. The mean age for cocoa farming households’ heads was 61.1 years. The majority (83.3%) of the respondents were married. Most of the household heads in the study area had formal education. The result of the food security indices was that the proportion of the food insecure households was 70% while the proportion of the food secure households was 30%. Logit result revealed that the household size variable is highly significant (p = 0.000) with a positive coefficient (β = 0.268). The results revealed that an increase in household size increases farmers’ chances of becoming food insecure. The odds ratio value of 0.268 indicates that ceteris paribus, an increase in household size by one adult equivalent increases household log odds of becoming food insecure by 0.268 times. The study recommends that Food insecure households should be assisted by all necessary stakeholders (Government and Non-Government Organizations)