Food insecurity status of rural microfinance households in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

Food insecurity remains a serious threat to development in developing countries globally. Several studies have been conducted on food insecurity. However, none of these studies have focused on the relationship between microfinance households' food security status and the attributes of the microcredit they accessed. Therefore, this study was carried out to bridge this gap by providing relevant information in this regard. The paper therefore presents a food insecurity profile of rural microcredit households in Ekiti State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 386 households for this study. Data collection was carried out using a wellstructured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) food security index were used to achieve the study objectives. The findings revealed that the average age of a rural microcredit household head was 47.28 years, while the average household size was 7 people. Average credit borrowed by the respondents was about N78,012.01. It was further revealed that average monthly food expenditure per capita was N3,108.41 from which a food security line of Ꞥ2,072.27 was determined. Based on the estimated food security line, 62% and 38% of the respondents were classified as food secure and food insecure, respectively. Furthermore, the study showed that food insecurity incidence was most prevalent among respondents that were over 60 years, as 86% of them were food insecure. The results further showed that respondents with no formal education were more food insecure than their counterparts with formal education as 78% of them were food insecure. Also, those with more than 12 people in their households showed higher incidence of food insecurity, as 90% of them are food insecure. Furthermore, respondents without microcredit facility exhibited higher food insecurity incidence than those with microcredit facility, as 64% of them were food insecure. The paper concludes that food insecurity is very rife in the study area. Therefore, the study suggests that efforts should be directed towards acquisition of basic education which could enhance the earning potentials of respondents and provision of social security services. Coupled with an intensive campaign on birth control and family planning, this could enhance respondents' access to microcredit facilities and invariably lower the food insecurity situation in the study area.