Assessment of Determinants of Food Security among Farming Households of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Food insecurity remains a significant global problem particularly in developing nations like Nigeria. This research assessed determinants of food security among rural households in Akwa Ibom. Secondary data used for this study were General Household Survey data, wave 4, panel 2018/2019 sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics. 215 farming households were selected in Akwa Ibom. Descriptive statistics, food security index and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) were used to analyze the data. The result revealed that in Akwa Ibom, above average of them (64.65%) were food secured while the remaining (35.35%) were food insecure. The regression result revealed that increase in food expenditure (p=0.0001) and annual rainfall(p=0.001) have the likelihood to raise the food security while household head age (p=0.0001) and household size (p=0.0001)have the probability of reducing their food security. It was revealed that three prominent coping strategies that ranked first, second and third according to weighted mean scores result were eating less preferred food, eating few kinds/varieties of food and eating reduced quantity of food respectively. This study concluded that increase in food expenditure and inputs prices have the likelihood of affecting food security status of the farming households in both South-South and North Central regions of Nigeria during post-harvest season. It was recommended that farming households should be optimistic to spend more on cheaper but nutritive food items. Government should also assist the farmers with farm inputs at subsidized cost to improve their productivity and consequently food security.