Evaluation of Maize Productivity and the Effect of Hybrid Maize Varieties on Food Security of Farming Households in Nigeria

This study examined maize productivity and the effect of hybrid maize varieties on household food-security of maize farmers in Kwara State Nigeria. Specifically, the study examined the technical efficiency of maize farms; the determined the effect of early maturing maize varieties on the food security status of farming households. This study utilized a random sampling procedure for the selection of 10 farmers in 12 villages making a total of 120 respondents, the data was collected in 2021. Descriptive statistics, stochastic frontier method and logit model were employed. About 54.2% of the respondents cultivated local late maturing maize varieties, 23.33% of the respondents cultivated medium-early maturing maize variety and 22.50% of the respondents cultivated early-maturing maize variety. The result showed that the mean technical efficiency level for the sample of small-scale farmers was 89.57%; 92.73% of the farmers who cultivated improved varieties were food-secure and 33.86% of the farmers who cultivated local varieties were also food-secure. About 52% of all the respondents were food-secure. The result also showed that planting early maturing maize, planting maize as the main crop, significantly increased food security while the number of extension visits reduced the food security level. It is therefore recommended that extension visits should increase to create awareness on the usage of early maturing maize varieties, improved seeds should be subsidized to an affordable price and household size should be reduced to increase food security status in farming households.