Effects of livelihood activities on the households' food security in the Ogbomoso south local government area of Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the effects of livelihood activities on the households' food security in the Ogbomoso South Local Government Area of Oyo State. The study used primary data, which was obtained with the aid of structured questionnaires from 75 household heads. Data was analyzed using the descriptive statistics, food security index and logit regression model. From the result, sixty-four percent of the respondents were male and thirty-six percent were female. Above average (56%) of them fall between the age range of 41-60 years, eightyeight percent were married and also 60.10 percent have a household size ranging between 5-8 members. It also showed that majority (90.70%) of the respondents had formal education and they are involved in various livelihood activities such as farming, trading, civil services and artisan. 73.70 percent of them rely on their personal income to cater for the family while the most consumed food item by the respondents was rice. The findings also revealed that 70.70 percent were food secured while 29.30 percent of the households were food insecure with a food security index of 1.5, which indicates that the per capita food expenditure falls above or is equal to two-thirds of the mean per capita food expenditure, and the implication is that households were food secured since the Fi>1. The logit regression result confirms that food security increases with increase in total income and year of experience (p<0.01) and (p<0.10) level of significance, while food security decreases with increase in household size and among female-headed households (p<0.01). The study recommends reduction of household size and diversification of the respondents' livelihood activities in order to earn more income. This is possible through awareness and sensitization programs by both government and non-governmental organizations to provide family planning knowledge and education for rural households.