EFFECT OF SELECTED INSECTICIDE ON WHITEFLY (Bemisia tabaci) INFESTING BRINJAL PLANTS 458 Assessment of Farm Household Food Security and Consumption Indices in Nigeria Ojeleye, O. A. PhD Research Scholar; Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria Adebisi, O. A. Research Technologist; Savanna Forestry Research Station, Samaru-Zaria, Nigeria Fadiji, T. O. Lecturer; Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Abuja, Gwagwalada-Abuja, Nigeria Abstract This study was carried out to assess farm households’ food security and consumption indices. The study was conducted in Kaduna state, Nigeria. Data used for this study was collected from a total of 244 farm households with the use of structured questionnaire using a multistage random and purposive sampling technique. The main tools of analysis for this study include descriptive statistics and food security index. The study shows that about one third of the rural farm households sampled was food insecure and that the average farm size of the farm households was 2.05ha as food secure and insecure households cultivate 2.09ha and 1.96ha respectively. Average farm and non-farm income were $1,130.7 and $810.3 per annum respectively as household daily calorie consumed was found to exceed household daily calorie requirement. The food security indices for the food secure and insecure households were found to be 1.462 and 0.852 respectively. Large family size was found to lower available calorie intake of households. The study recommends the need for family planning education and policy frames to increase household farm size. Keywords: Food security, food security indices, farm households, Nigeria Introduction 1 Interest in food security has been very strong most especially since the world food crisis of 1972–74 (Ajibola, 2000). During the quarter–century following the Second World War, the faster growth of world food production than of both population and effective demand and the existence of large surplus stocks, although held mostly in North America, kept the subject of global food security in the background. According to FAO, (1988), the world food crisis of 1972– 74 challenged the prevailing complacency, Corresponding author’s Name: Ojeleye, O. A. Email address: leviteseun@hotmail.com food suddenly appeared to be in short supply on world markets, cereal prices rose sharply and food aid fell; those on whom the heaviest burden fell were the poor people in poor countries (Omotesho et al., 2006). This brought to center stage, an ongoing debate on the issue of hunger and food insecurity. Even with the recent global commitment to food security, the problem of hunger and extreme poverty seem to have wide prevalence in the developing world, as the over 800 million people throughout the world and particularly in developing countries do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs. The rapid food price increase between 2005 and 2008 and recent economic recessions have dampened global efforts to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (IFPRI, Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development journal homepage: http://aessweb.com/journal-detail.php?id=5005 mailto:leviteseun@hotmail.com Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, 4(9)2014: 458-464 459 2010). It has been further put forward by FAO (2009) that high food prices and the economic slowdown have pushed 255–290 million more people into extreme poverty. The persistence of hunger in the developing world means that ensuring adequate and nutritious food for the population will remain the principal challenge facing policy makers in many developing countries in the years to come (Stamoulis et al., 2004). The problem of food security is one that demands for continual attention and strategy. Furthermore, the Nigerian share of the crisis is alarming. A recent estimate put the number of hungry people in the country at over one-third of the total population of about 150 million, and 52% of the populace are said to be living under poverty line (Ajayeoba, 2010). The country is characterized by high reliance on food imports as malnutrition is widespread and rural areas are especially vulnerable to chronic food shortages, malnutrition, unbalanced nutrition, erratic food supply, poor quality foods, high food costs, and even total lack of food (Akinyele, 2009) despite the country’s vast potential food production capacity. The connections among dwindling food production capacity, rising food prices, and dependency on food importation and consequently food insecurity are nowhere more clearly demonstrated in recent times than in the Sahelian food crisis, which also affected many of the 11 northern states of Nigeria situated in the Sahel savanna belt. Carleto (2001) has however argued that reliable information on household food security is a pre-requisite for accurate and effective design, monitoring and development of development projects. Hence many development agencies considered household food security a guiding principle for designing interventions in rural areas. Measurement of food security at the farm family level will provide the basis for monitoring future progress and assessing the impacts of various projects, programmes and policies on the beneficiaries’ food security status (Hoddinot, 2001). The need therefore arises to assess food security and consumption indices, particularly in the rural areas in other to properly position intervention programmes and policy frames to get the country in consonant with the global commitment to reducing hunger and food insecurity the world over. This study therefore looks at the food security and consumption indices of farm households in the study area with a view to present a baseline study for impactful policy design. Materials and methods This study was conducted in Kaduna state of Nigeria, located in the northern part of the country between latitude 110 32’ and 090 02’ North of the equator and 800 50’ and 060 15’ East of the meridian. The state is in central northern Nigeria and is the successor to the old Northern Region, which had its capital at Kaduna. Kaduna State is mostly populated by Hausa, Gbagyi, Adara, Gong, Atyap, Bajjuu, Ninkyob, Kurama, Koro, zango kataf, mada and Agworok, Ikulu people Moroa'a, Atuku Gwandara Ham or Jaba ethnic communities and agriculture is the main stay of the economy of the people. A multi-stage random and purposive sampling procedure was used for this study. The Kaduna state Agriculture Development Project being a state wide project operates in 4 zonal offices namely Maigana, Samaru Kataf, Birnin Gwari and Lere Zones. Of the four zones, two of them were purposively selected namely Maigana and Samaru Kataf, representing two senatorial zones of the state and geographically, Maigana is in the northern part of the state while Samaru Kataf in the southern part. Two Local Government Areas (LGAs) were then selected within the chosen zones at random resulting in four (4) LGAs altogether sampled for the study. In each of these randomly sampled LGAs, two communities were chosen with efforts made to exclude urban centers, making a total of eight (8) communities that were studied. Descriptive statistic was used to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of the farm families, Food Security index (FSI) was used to obtain the food security status of Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, 4(9)2014: 458-464 460 respondents. The approach taken in this study for the determination of food security index is to follow the identification and aggregation procedures. Identification is the process of defining a minimum level of nutrition necessary to maintain healthy living. This is referred to as the ‘Food Security Line”, below which people are classified as food insecure and subsisting on inadequate nutrition. The food security line was used in this study based on the daily- recommended level of calories and protein, which are 2260 Kcal and 65g respectively (Olayemi, 1998). In order to generate food security indices, the nutrient content of the food items consumed were used to derive calorie availability. Food Security Index (Zi) = Household Daily per Capita Calorie/Protein Consumed (x) Household Daily per Capita Calorie/Protein Required (y)............................................ (1) For a household to be food secured, Zi must be greater than or equal to 1 (Zi > 1). If Zi is less than 1 (Zi < 1), the household is food insecure. The quantities of crops produced and purchased were converted to kilogram and further to calorie consumed per day per household and then compared with the standard (2260kcal). Nutrient composition of commonly eaten foods in Nigeria—raw, processed and prepared table as supplied by Babatunde et al. (2007) was used (See Table 1). For the purpose of this study, a household is defined as a group of people living together and eating from the same pot. Based on Zi, several food security measures are calculated; the shortfall/surplus index, p is given as p = 1 𝑀 𝐺𝑗𝑚 𝑗=1 ……………. 2 Where Gj = (Xj – I)/I is the deficiency (or surplus faced by household j, Xj is the average daily calorie or protein available to the jth household while M is the number of households that are food secure (for surplus index) or food insecure (for shortfall index). It measures at the aggregate level, the extent to which households are below (or above) the food security line. In implementing food security policies and programmes, the values of the index could be monitored over time and compared among different groups of the population (Omotesho et al., 2006). Table 1: Nutrient composition of commonly eaten foods in Nigerian—raw, processed and prepared Food items Kcal/Kg Food items Kcal/Kg Staple foods Mango 590 Cassava tuber 1500 Pawpaw 300 Cassava flour 3870 Pineapple 320 Cassava chips 3000 Apple 570 Garri 3840 Coconut 580 Yam tuber 1100 Guava 730 Yam flour 3810 Sugarcane 360 Yam ships 3000 Meat and animal products Sweet potato tuber 1100 Cow meat 2370 Sweet potato chips 900 Goat meat 2370 Irish potato 1200 Sheep meat 2370 Cocoyam tuber 3830 Pork 2370 Maize green 3100 Bush meat 2370 Maize grain 4120 Chicken 2380 Maize flour 4120 Turkey 2380 Sorghum grain 3500 Fish 2230 Sorghum flour 3500 Snail 2245 Millet grain 3500 Shrimps 2230 Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, 4(9)2014: 458-464 461 Millet flour 3500 Crayfish 2200 Rice 1230 Crabs 2200 Wheat grain 3400 Eggs (pieces) 1400 Wheat flour 3300 Dairy products Cowpea (beans) 5920 Milk 4900 Ground nut 5950 Cheese 4000 Soybeans 4050 Yoghurt 4100 Soybean flour 2600 Ice cream 4100 Melon (shelled) 5670 Beverages Plantain 770 Cocoa 1200 Banana 960 Tea (leaves) 1200 Vegetables Tea (liquid) 1200 Okra 4550 Coffee (powder) 1340 Tomato 880 Coffee (liquid) 1340 Pepper 3930 Drinks Onion 440 Soft drinks 620 Carrot 400 Orange juice 400 Egg plant 440 Apple juice 550 Cucumber 270 Pineapple juice 560 Cochorus/ewedu 500 Local beer 740 Spinach 220 Bottled beer 460 Bitter leaf 220 Wine 330 Water leaf 180 Condiments and Spices Cabbage 230 Maggi 220 Pumpkin 440 Salt 180 Source: Babatude et al. (2007) Results and discussion The mean age of the respondents as presented in Table 2 is 39.1 years showing a virile and agile average farmers’ age with the consequent capability of doing a lot of farm work if given proper incentives. The average farming experience of 22.9 years suggests that with increasing years of farming, farmers gain experience in the art of farming to the advantage of gaining understanding and increasing productivity. From the survey 87.7% of the households are men headed while 12.3% have female headed households. About 34% of the respondents are however not literate enough in being able to read or write in English language, but 7.38% and 24.18% of household heads were observed to have adult and primary education respectively. Secondary and post- secondary education of the respondents was found to be 27.87% and 6.56% respectively. It is expected that education in agricultural production will assist the farmer to test and accept innovations available to him. It will enhance his ability to make informed and accurate decisions on the management of the farm. This also could be a source of additional income. The significance of certain socio-economic factors of household heads in seen in the fact it is the responsibility of the household head to feed his family. These characteristic could well dispose him or otherwise in undertaking his responsibility accordingly, and it becomes imperative to appreciate these characteristics. Table 2: Socio-economic characteristics of the household heads in the study area Variables Frequency Percentage Age (Years) < 40 155 63.52 41-60 82 33.61 >60 7 2.87 Mean 39.1, Farming Experience (Years) < 10 31 12.70 11-20 85 34.84 21-30 72 29.51 >30 56 22.95 Mean 22.9, Gender Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, 4(9)2014: 458-464 462 Male 214 87.70 Female 30 12.30 MaritalStatus Unmarried 23 9.43 Married 221 90.57 Education Level No Formal Education 25 10.25 Arabic Education 58 23.77 Adult Education 18 7.38 Primary Education 59 24.18 Secondary Education 68 27.87 Post- Secondary Education 16 6.56 Total 244 100 Household food security and consumption indices The result presented in Table 3 shows that about 66% of the respondents were food secure while 82 of the 244 farmers sampled, representing 33.61% were found to be food insecure. As shown in Table 3, farming households operate on small scale with average farm size of 2.05 hectares. The food insecure households who constitute about 34 % of the sample however cultivate about 1.96 heactares. Furthermore, Table 3 shows that farm income in the study area is on the average of N180, 914.50k ($1,130.7) only per annum. This translates to an average annual farm income of N15,076.21k ($94.2) monthly, and N27,371.4k ($171.1) per capita for food secured households, and N17,000.5 ($106.3) per capita for food insecure households. The study also revealed that adjusted household size for food secure was found to be 7.0 while food insecure households have 9.4 average adjusted household sizes. Further analysis revealed that the average crop production figure for food secure households is given as 2278.0kg grain equivalent while those of the households experiencing food insecurity is 1890.1kg grain equivalent. Following our identification and aggregation procedures, food security index, and the shortfall/surplus index have also been presented in Table 3 for both the food secure and food insecure households. The multiple indices were used to provide a basis for examining the extent of food insecurity among farming households from different perspectives. The average Food Security Indices for the insecure and secure households are given as 0.852 and 1.462 respectively, while the average Food security index for the 244 sampled farmers is 1.257. Also, the average daily calorie consumption for food secure households is given as 3303.42kcal. That of the insecure households is 1925.88kcal as the mean score daily calorie consumption for the entire respondents is 2840.50kcal. It is to be noted that based on the recommended daily calorie intake of 2260kcal, the food secured household had 1043.42kcal in excess of the recommended intake while for the insecure household, their average daily household per capita calorie consumption is 334.12kcal short of the recommended value. Even though the aggregate household daily calorie availability exceeded the minimum requirement, the study area is only on the threshold of food adequacy. Besides, the study revelation that about one- third of the households that are food-insecure with an average daily per capita calorie consumption of 1925.88kcal per capita is about 15% less than the minimum daily requirement while about two-third of the entire households that are food secure exceeded the minimum calorie requirement by 46%. This is as presented in the shortfall/surplus index (p) which measures the extent of deviation from the food security line by the households. Table 3: Food security and consumption indices Food security and consumption indices Households Food secure Food insecure Pooled Number of households 162 82 244 Percentage household 66.39 33.61 100 Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, 4(9)2014: 458-464 463 Farm size (ha) 2.09 [1.302] 1.96 [0.995] 2.05 [1.207] Farm income (n) 191,600.0 ($1,197.5) [124322.9] 159,804.3 ($998.7) [108695.1] 180,914.5 ($1,130.7) [120021.8] Non-farm income (n) 136,587.4 ($853.7) [118845.3] 114,722.2 ($717.0) [86875.4] 129,642.0 ($810.3) [109919.5] Adjusted household size 7.0 [3.45] 9.4 [3.84] 7.8 [3.76] Total crop production in grain equivalent (Kg) 2,278.0 [1444.7] 1,890.1 [1207.7] 2,147.6 [1379.4] Household daily calorie requirement (kcal) 15,844.4 [7,793.1] 21,321.2 [8,667.5] 17,685.0 [8,485.3] Household daily calorie consumption (kcal) 20,897.4 [8,476.6] 17,82.5 [6,532.7] 19,866.1 [7,996.4] Household Daily per capita Consumption (Kcal) 3,303.42 [1,178.17] 1,925.88 [253.78] 2,840.50 [1,168.89] Household food security index 1.462 [0.521] 0.852 [0.112] 1.257 [0.517] Short fall index - 0.148 Surplus index 0.462 - 0.257 Figures in the parentheses are the standard deviations Conclusion and recommendation This study shows that about one-third of the sampled households are food insecure with an shortfall of about 15% of their daily calorie requirement. In spite of the fact that the total household daily calorie requirement was found to exceed the total household daily calorie consumed, the calorie consumption was just at the threshold of adequacy raising the question of household accessibility and food distribution efficiency. This study also revealed that majority of the households are subsisting on less than the minimum required calorie per capita per day as the household size of the food insecure significantly lower the per capita calorie consumption of households. In view of the negative impact of large family size on the food security situation of rural households in the study areas, farming households should be educated on the need to adopt the modern family planning techniques so that they may bear the number of children that they can feed. Policy frames that will address land acquisition and increase farm size should also be designed as the farmers surveyed were found to be mostly small scaled. References Ajayeoba, A. 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