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Nigeria agriculture, food security and dietary intake have not been exempted from the disruptions in countless sectors around the world due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The country first experienced the outbreak on February 27, 2020, and the experience since then has shown negative effects not only on the socioeconomic conditions but also on agriculture, food security and dietary intake. Long term in-depth analysis of the effects of this pandemic on food security and dietary intake using quantitative data is still very difficult due to paucity of data and the great level of the improbability of the trajectory of the spread of the Virus. This study is a rapid assessment of the short and long-term potential effects of the disease. It relied on a review of situation reports especially by the Nigeria Centre of Disease Control and other reports around the world on COVID-19, personal observations, and public opinion via mobile telephone survey of Lagos and Oyo States, Nigeria. Findings show that food demand and supply shocks caused by COVID-19 outbreak affect agriculture, food and dietary intake negatively through COVID-19 policies. It leads to a reduction in household income coupled with hike in food prices. Owing to the Nigeria's crude farming practice, there was a scarcity of hired labour required for production process during 2020 farming season. This implies a high likelihood of low output and further surge in food prices in the future. Food access was also compromised with the accumulation of unsold fresh produce by the smallholder farmers and the low salary earners during movement restrictions and of loss income as a result of international border closure. Food and dietary intake is affected as people are shifting diets to more affordable and low quality foods, while food stability is not guaranteed due to market insecurity, prompting an extraordinary level of indecision. The study concludes that the shock of COVID-19 is not only a demand management problem but a multidimensional crisis requiring monetary, fiscal, and health policy responses with global collaboration and cooperation.

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PurposeThe majority of poor women in Africa live in rural areas, and investigating their empowerment status and factors influencing their empowerment is therefore a tool for overcoming poverty. This paper investigated the dimensions and determinants of women's empowerment in rural Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThis study used data from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). Information on women's agencies, resource, income, leadership and time/workload was used to construct women empowerment index (WEI). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logit regression model.FindingsMost of the decisions were made by the women's spouses, while decisions on how to spend her earnings were jointly made with her spouse. A majority of the women did not justify beating nor owned businesses. A larger percentage of rural women were disempowered than men; agency had the highest relative contribution to women's disempowerment; and women in the northern zones of Nigeria were less empowered than their southern counterparts. Husband's education and her age were inversely related to women's empowerments while her education, household size and being the household head were directly related to it.Originality/valueThere is a dearth of empirical studies on multidimensional women's empowerment in rural Nigeria. This study therefore provides a clear understanding of drivers of women's empowerment in rural Nigeria, and its findings are to serve as guiding documents for policymakers in designing gender-responsive interventions programs and implementation of a genuine gender mainstreaming in rural development policy in Nigeria. Further, the findings would contribute to the growing body of knowledge, especially empirical studies, on women's empowerment in Nigeria and the developing world.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-07-2019-0455

OMA performed the statistical analyses and managed the literature searches and the analyses of the study. Author BAA also managed the literature searches. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

The study assessed dynamics of food insecurity among households in rural Nigeria using the Living Standard Measurement Survey-Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMSISA) collected in 2010/2011 and 2015/2016. Food insecurity status of the households was constructed using Household Food Insecurity Access Scale and analysed with descriptive statistics and random effect ordered probit model. Overall, 63.10%, 26.24%, 9.53% and 1.13% of households were food secure, mildly food insecure, moderately food insecure andseverely food insecure, respectively in the first panel; while 46.53%, 31.63%, 19.39% and 2.45% were food secure, mildly food insecure, moderately food insecure and severely food insecure, respectively in the second panel. Food insecurity status increased with large household size, dependency ratio, being female-headed and aging household heads. Households in south-eastern Nigeria had a higher food insecurity incidence than elsewhere. Age, age squared, female to male adult ratio, primary and tertiary education, occupation, marital status, household size, access to credit and living in North East, North West, South West, South East and South zones were the correlates of food insecurity in rural Nigeria. Based on the findings, the study recommended an increased awareness on the use of family planning methods and improved access to family planning services. Also, severely food insecure households should be identified and specifically targeted by the government for appropriate safety net interventions.

Food insecurity dynamics of rural households in Nigeria was assessed using a panel data. Results showed that 44.4% of households that were food secure in the first panel transited into food insecurity in the second panel, while 32.5% that were mildly food insecure transited into food security. Furthermore, 25.7% transited from moderate food insecurity to food security, while 38.2% transited from severe food insecurity to food security. About 35.1% of households were never food insecure; 11.4% exited food insecurity 28.0% entered food insecurity; while 25.48% remained always food insecure. Having primary education, secondary education, dependency ratio, household size, share of non-food expenditure and farm size explained food insecurity transition. However, the likelihood of a household being always food insecure was explained by gender, female-to-male-adult ratio, marital status, primary education, secondary education, dependency ratio, share of non-food expenditure, farm size, access to credit and access to remittance.