Analysis of Food Security Status of Farming Households in Taraba State, Nigeria

The study analyzed food security status of farming households in Taraba State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting 398 farming households for the study. Data were collected through the use of questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and food security index, The result revealed the mean age, mean households size, mean farming experience and mean monthly household income of the respondents in the study area as 43.8 years, 9 persons/households, 18.5 years and N64,334 respectively. Estimates from food security index shows that more than half (52.3%) of the households were food insecure with food security index of 0.75, food insecurity gap and severity indices of 0.398 (40%) and 0.158 (16%), respectively. The leading causes of food insecurity identified were ‘high food prices’ (92.7%), ‘high price of agro inputs’ (90.7%), and ‘high fuel price/transportation cost’ (86.4%). The study concludes that the ratio of mean household monthly income of N64,334/month to the mean of 9 persons per household which is N266.7/capita/day is insufficient to guarantee food security, given the acceptable living standard of $1.25/capita/day (equivalent of N2062/capita/day at $1 = N1650). Similarly, the available kcal/capita/day for food insecure households was 1,643 which is far below the recommended level of 2,730kcal/capita/day. It is therefore recommended that appropriate policy interventions should focus on parameters that promote food security such as support and investment in skill-base education and income frontiers, financial inclusion and institutional support to foster human capital development. In addition, farmers are encouraged to diversify their revenue streams, improve in their savings and reinvestment to build up their food and asset base to assist their households to live beyond daily calorie requirement.