Food Security and Poverty of the Rural Households In Kwara State, Nigeria

A fundamental challenge the world faces today is ensuring that millions of households living in poverty have access to enough food to maintain a healthy life. Africa over the years has been looking for ways to solving the problem of food security and it is an important topic in discussions of Africa leaders. While there are national data on food security and poverty, information on rural food security and poverty are not readily available especially in Nigeria. This study, therefore, employed discriminant analysis to examine the levels and the major determinants of food security and poverty among the rural households who are the major producers of food in Nigeria. Using the basic calorie and protein requirement per capita of households, our result revealed that accessibility to health facilities; household size, farm size and household expenditure on food were the major determinants of a household’s food security status. Non-farm income was a major determinant of the probability of a household being non-poor. The study suggests family planning as well as specific programmes targeted at the rural poor and food insecure as policy options.