Prevalence and correlates of food insecurity in rural Nigeria: A panel analysis

Abstract

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.

Assessing Food Insecurity and Its Drivers among Smallholder Farming Households in Rural Oyo State, Nigeria: The HFIAS Approach

“…FANTA came up with a group of questions called Household Food Insecurity Access Scale Generic Questions (see Table 4) which have been used in several nations and attested to its ability to distinguish food-secure from food-insecure households. The HFIAS questions capture the HFI experience and can be used in categorizing households and populations in the order of extremity [10,[35][36][37]41]. The information provided by HFIAS can be used to assess the prevalence of HFI and detect changes in the HFI situation of a population over time.…”

“…It is categorical in nature, depicting the degree of severity of food deprivation among the respondents. In the literature, ordered logit and probit models were used in determining such ordinal data [10,35,37,[43][44][45]. Selecting between the two models is primarily a matter of choice, convenience, and popularity in the literature [37,46].…”

“…Moreover, food insecurity can further be referred to as: "when people do not have adequate physical, social or economic access to food" as defined above [9]. Household food insecurity (HFI) is referred to as a situation of uncertain, insufficient, or unavailable access, or use of food [10]. This has a link with insufficient intake of important nutrients and inadequate resources to afford sufficient food both for individual and household needs, which leads to poor nutrition.…”

“…The frightening food insecurity situation in Nigeria calls for urgent humanitarian assistance, especially with the increasing number of undernourished people in the country. Figure 1 reveals Nigeria's ranking in 2012-2020 GFSI scores with infinitesimal improvement in the score from 40.9/100 in 2012 to 40.1/100 in 2020, while Quite a few studies have investigated household food (in)security using both micro and macro data in different parts of the Nigeria [10,[27][28][29][30]. Moreover, empirical studies have determined the food insecurity status [29][30][31], food poverty index [25], food consumption score [32] and Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) [33] to investigate HFI.…”

“…This study would provide germane evidence for policymakers and practitioners by spotlighting drivers of food access vis-à-vis food deprivation and their individual contribution to HFI. Quite a few studies have investigated household food (in)security using both micro and macro data in different parts of the Nigeria [10,[27][28][29][30]. Moreover, empirical studies have determined the food insecurity status [29][30][31], food poverty index [25], food consumption score [32] and Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) [33] to investigate HFI.…”