Gender disparities in resource access, utilization and competitiveness in agricultural production have been critical challenges to the achievement of food security and inclusive growth in Africa. Thus, this article determined rice farmers’ productivities and competitiveness, their willingness to undertake and factors influencing their participation in agribusiness across gender, using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study employed a case study of rice farmers in Ibaji Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria, to reach its conclusion. The study concluded that in spite of the willingness to invest in agribusiness, gender imbalance in socioeconomic status, resource use and incomes were still recurring issues limiting productivity, competiveness in rice production and by extension, food security. To feed Africa, there is the need to close the gender gap in socio‐economic status, resource access, productivity and competitiveness, align national with regional agenda and the global sustainable development goals on hunger and equity, with the view to pooling resources towards tackling the food insecurity on an equitable and sustainable basis. It has also become imperative to support effective policy deployment, implement proven innovative and sustainable agri‐business models and embark on targeted gender support within country and regional settings.

This study determined the effects of off-farm income on poverty and food security status of farmers in Paikoro Local Government area of Niger state, Nigeria. A total of 150 farmers were selected randomly from six wards across the Local Government Area. Structured questionnaire and interview schedule were used to elicit primary data from the farmers for the study. Descriptive statistics, Foster-Greer-Thorbeck (FGT) model, Logit regression and Tobit regression models were used for data analysis. Results showed that the mean age of the farmers was 42 years, majority (89.33%) were male while 90.67% were married and 63% had no formal education. The most prevailing off-farm enterprise was trading (74%). The poverty status of the respondents were classified under poor and non-poor with poverty incidence of 41.33% for the poor, poverty gap and severity indices were 37.63% and 14.16% respectively. Logit regression showed membership of association, household size, gender, food expenses, years in formal education, and off-farm income were significant at p=0.01, p=0.01, p=0.05, p=0.05, p=0.05, p=0.05 respectively. The food security status analysis revealed that 67% of the farmers were food secure while 33% were food insecure. Tobit regression results showed household size, farming experience, size of farm and off-farm income at p=0.01 respectively were significant determinants of food security. It was concluded that off-farm income had significant positive effect on the poverty and food security status of the farmers. However, poverty and food insecurity still remain major issues in the area that cannot be over-looked, and as such, efforts should be made to ensure that farmers are encouraged and empowered to engage in profitable off-farm activities while the government should also make policies that will favour their off-farm enterprises.

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