Introduction 

1.1 Introduction 

Reducing food insecurity continues to be a major public policy challenge in developing countries. Almost 1 billion people worldwide are undernourished, many more suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, and the absolute numbers tend to increase further, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (FAO, 2008). Recent food price hikes have contributed to greater public awareness of hunger related problems, also resulting in new international commitments to invest in developing countries agriculture (Fan and Rosegrant, 2008). Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranking of Nigeria as 40th among 79 food deficient countries in 2011, 40th again in 2012, 39th in 2013 and 38th in 2014 remains unacceptably high and has indicated that no remarkable progress has been made from all efforts geared towards hunger reduction (GHI, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014). The GHI Report (2012) further posit that rising food prices, malnutrition and deaths as a result of wide-spread poverty is an indication of the prevalence of food insecurity in the country. It is also a sign of extreme suffering for millions of poor people. 

Agriculture is however one of the most important sectors of the Nigerian economy, it contributes more than 40% of the total annual GDP in 2010 (NBS, 2012). The sector employs about 70% of the labour force and accounts for over 70% of the non-oil exports and, perhaps most importantly, provide over 80% of the food needs of the country (Adegboye, 2004 and NBS, 2012). Agriculture provided adequate food for the Nigerian populace both in quantity and quality during the era before independence in 1960. Helleiner (1996), showed that in Nigeria, between 1950 and 1960, food production was at subsistence but self-sufficient level. The economy was experiencing rapid growth of 

4.5% between 1958 and 1963, the driving force being a booming trade in agricultural commodities export, growing annually at 5.5%. The first decade of Nigerian independence (1960-1970) opened the way to food shortages as a result of declining agricultural production and increasing population growth rate. The increase in population at a rate considerably higher than the rate of increase in food production has continued to widen the gap between domestic food supply and domestic demand. This disparity has led to rising food prices (85-125% increases in many Nigerian cities) and declining foreign exchange earnings from agricultural exports. The interaction of these factors has led to food insecurity and the idea of self-sufficiency is becoming more and more difficult to achieve due to declining agricultural production and inefficient food marketing system (Helleiner, 1996). 

In order to ensure self-sufficiency and food security in Nigeria, a number of agricultural development institutions and reforms were embarked upon by the federal government since 1970. These programmes include: National Accelerated Food Production 

Programme, NAFPP (1973); Agricultural Development Project, ADP (1975); Operation Feed the Nation, OFN (1976); River Basin Development Authorities, RBDA (1977); 

National Seed Service, NSS (1977); Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme, ACGS (1977); Rural Banking Scheme, RBS (1977); Green Revolution, GR (1979); Directorate of Food, Road and Rural Infrastructure, DFRRI (1986); National Agricultural Land Development Authority, NALDA (1992); National Fadama Development Projects, NFDP (1992); Nigerian Agricultural Cooperatives and Rural Development Bank, 

NACRDB (2000); National Agricultural Development Fund, NADF (2002); Commodity 

Marketing and Development Companies, CMDC (2003), Root and Tubers Expansion 

Programme, RTEP (2002), and the Food Security Thematic Group, FSTG (2009).  

According to Ihimodu (2004), empirical records of many of these programmes and projects are not impressive enough to bring about the expected transformation of the sector. The food self-sufficiency ratio has fallen from 98% in early 1960s to less than 54% in 1986. In 1990, 18% of the population (14.4 million) was estimated to be critically food insecure and this increased to 36% (32.7 million) in 1992 and further increased to 40.7% in 1996. As at 2004, over 40% of Nigeria’s estimated population of 133 million people was food insecure (Idachaba, 2004). In 2014, the FAO’s estimate of Nigerians living under the poverty line of less than $1.25 a day was put at 68% (estimation for 2005-2012) while Ajayeoba (2010), put the figure for food insecure Nigerians at 53 million of the estimated 150 million population. 

Given the above figures, it is obvious, that the continuous efforts of the government will not arrest the food insecurity situation and hence resort to complement its internal effort with importation of food. Table 1.1 shows the Nigeria’s food imports indicators from 1981-2013. The idea of importing food to meet the food shortage was later dropped because food import bill grew substantially and was taking a larger share of the Gross Domestic Product. For example as indicated in Table 1.1, in 1989, Nigeria’s food import bill was about N2.3billion (about 0.6% of the total GDP) while it stood at about N254.6 billion in 2003 (about 2.57% of the total GDP). It peaked very recently in 2011 when food importation was 8.01% of total GDP, but in 2012, it was as high as N1.4447 trillion which accounted for about 3.56% of the total GDP. The food problem was not peculiar to Nigeria. It attracted a global attention as more than 2 billion people throughout the developing countries and some other 40 millions in developed world do not have enough food to meet their basic needs and millions more experience hunger, malnutrition, growth retardation and sometime death due to starvation (FAO, 2010). 

 

Table1.1 Nigeria’s Food Imports Indicators from 1981-2013 (Figures in billion naira) 

 

Year GDP at current Food Total Food Import as % Food Import as Market Price Import Import of Total Import %  of Total GDP 

 

1981 94.3 1.90 12.8      14.84         2.01  

1982 101 1.80 10.8      16.67         1.78  

1983 110.1 1.90 8.9      21.35         1.73  

1984 116.3 1.50 7.2      20.83         1.29  

1985 134.6 1.30 7.1      18.31         0.97  

1986 134.6 0.90 6.0      15.00         0.67  

1987 193.1 2.00 17.9      11.17         1.04  

1988 263.3 2.10 21.4        9.81         0.80  

1989 382.3 2.30 30.9        7.44         0.60  

1990 328.6 3.90 45.7        8.53         1.19  

1991 545.7 3.60 89.5        4.02         0.66  

1992 875.3 15.00 143.2      10.47         1.71  

1993 1,089.70 15.80 165.6        9.54         1.45  

1994 1,399.70 15.60 162.8        9.58         1.11  

1995 2,907.40 99.60 755.1      13.19         3.43  

1996 4,032.30 85.00 562.6      15.11         2.11  

1997 4,189.20 117.50 845.7      13.89         2.80  

1998 3,989.50 116.40 837.4      13.90         2.92  

1999 4,679.20 119.90 862.5      13.90         2.56  

2000 6,713.60 134.70 985      13.68         2.01  

2001 6,895.20 190.10 1,358.20      14.00         2.76  

2002 7,795.80 179.30 1,512.70      11.85         2.30  

2003 9,913.50 254.60 2,080.20      12.24         2.57  

2004 11,411.10 239.80 1,987.00      12.07         2.10  

2005 14,610.90 291.30 2,800.90      10.40         1.99  

2006 18,564.60 323.30 3,108.50      10.40         1.74  

2007 20,657.30 406.80 3,912.00      10.40         1.97  

2008 24,296.30 493.00 5,189.80        9.50         2.03  

2009 24,794.20 498.40 5,102.50        9.77         2.01  

2010 33,984.80 759.20 7,614.70        9.97         2.23  

2011 37,409.90 2,998.00 10,229.40      29.31         8.01  

2012 40,544.10 1,444.70 9,426.10      15.33         3.56  

2013 42,396.80 1,755.60* 8,808.10*      19.93*        4.14* Source: CBN Statistical Bulletin, 2014.       *Provisional figure. 

 

Food security exists when "all people at all times have access to safe nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life" (FAO, 1996). Food security entails ensuring sustainable access, availability and affordability of adequate quantity and quality food to all citizens to meet up with their physiological requirements (Okuneye, 2014). The main goal of food security is for individuals to be able to obtain adequate food needed at all times, and to be able to utilise the food to meet the body’s needs. Food security is multifaceted. The World Bank (2001), identified three pillars underpinning food security; these are food availability, food accessibility, and food utilization. This infers from the concept that food security is not just a production issue. 

Food availability for the farm household means ensuring sufficient food is available for them through own production. However, due to lack of adequate storage facilities and pressing needs, they mostly end up selling excess produce during the harvesting period, and sometimes rely on market purchases during the hungry season.   Food access means reducing poverty. Simply making food available is not enough; one must also be able to purchase it, especially the low-income households (Sen, 1981). Pervasive poverty among the rural population in Nigeria is an indication of low agricultural productivity and relatively low incomes (Abdullahi, 1999). D’Silva and Bysouth (1992), defined absolute poverty as lack of access to resources required for obtaining the minimum necessities essential for the maintenance of physical efficiency. This connotes that the poor farmers will have little access to food, either produced or purchased. Farm families with limited access to productive resources such as land, inputs and capital, required for attaining physical efficiency in food production could be food insecure i.e. resource poverty could lead to low productivity, food insufficiency, and lack of income to purchase the needed calories.  

Food utilization means ensuring a good nutritional outcome, which is nutrition security. 

Having sufficient food will not ensure a good nutritional outcome if poor health results in frequent sickness. Building this pillar means investing in complementary resources such as nutrition education, health care, provision of safe water and better sanitation, instituting gender symmetry, and removal of child abuse practices (Doppler, 2002).  Food security for a household in the overall would therefore mean access by all members at all times to enough food for an active healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods; and an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways in the community (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing or other coping strategies). Aside from food production, which a large proportion of the Nigerian populace is involved in, accessibility is very important to attain food security level. Food security at national level does not therefore guarantee that all people, especially the poor, will have access to the minimum nutrition requirement because of existing regional, economic and social inequalities (Alderman et al., 1993). 

Community food security exists when all community residents obtain a safe, personally acceptable, nutritious diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes healthy choices, community self-reliance and equal access for everyone (MHSHABC, 2004). This research intends to evaluate food security status among farm household and communities in Kaduna state vis-à-vis the global interest to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger as reflected in the Millennium Development Goal. 

 

1.2 Problem Statement 

Worldwide, about 852 million men, women and children are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty; while up to 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degree of poverty (FAO, 2003). FAO report in 2010 put growing extreme poverty figure at almost 2 billion people worldwide, while in Nigeria, more than twothirds of the people are poor, despite living in a country with vast potential wealth (Omotesho et al., 2010).  

Food insecurity is a major risk for Africa. Of the 86 low-income and food deficient declared countries the world over, 43 are in Africa where the majority of the world‘s 6.7 billion people live under the poverty line. In sub-Saharan Africa, although agriculture accounted for 70 % of the labor force and over 25 % of GDP, the continent has continued to register low priority for investment in agriculture (Eluhaiwe, 2008). 

The situation has resulted in a new global trend in the demand for food. Thus, there is therefore an urgent need to transform agriculture in Nigeria, to take advantage of these trends in food demand. For Nigeria to effectively increase its share in Africa’s agricultural space and harness the market opportunities, the need to re-focus the country’s agricultural financing policy to develop its agricultural food baskets and its commodity value-chains to meet the food market product demands, has become 

imperative. 

Nigeria is still however, characterized by high reliance on food imports. Malnutrition is widespread in the entire country and rural areas and communities 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. This phenomenon cuts across all age groups and categories of individuals in the rural areas. For example, there is a high level of malnutrition among children in rural Nigeria; the figures differ with geopolitical zones, with 56% reported in a rural area of South West and 84.3% in three rural communities in the northern part of Nigeria. Nationally, the overall prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight are 42.0%, 9% and 25%, respectively (Akinyele, 2009). 

A number of studies have been done to assess the determinants of food security vis-à-vis the socio-economics characteristics, mostly in the south western states in Nigeria (Adio, 

(2000), Adegboye, (2004), Agboola, (2004) Babatunde et al., (2007) and Oyewole, (2012) but none from the community food security stand point. But then, there may be food insecurity for some rural populations because they do not produce sufficient food and/or do not have sufficient purchasing power to cover their food needs borne out of community food production resources and indices. The issues of adequate farm resources and supply could also come to play in determining food security status in communities. Rural poverty is a very important issue in Nigeria, that needs redress as over 90 of agricultural production is from the rural farming households with little access to productive resources (resource poverty) (Obamiro et al., 2003). Many factors which may vary from region to region are known to be determinants of food insecurity. This study, therefore, sought to identify and address the following questions: 

1. What are the socio-economic characteristics of the rural farm households and communities in the study area? 

2. What are the expenditure and consumption patterns of farm households in the study area? 

3. What is the nature of food system of farm households in the study area? 

4. What are the food security indices of farm households in the study area?