ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY ON RURAL HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN KATCHA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF NIGER STATE

Abstract

The study examined the assessment of the effect of agricultural productivity in rural household food security in Katcha local government area of Niger state, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to examine the socioeconomic characteristics of rural household, examine the effect of socio-economic variables on household food security status of the respondents and to identify the constraints affecting agricultural output and food security. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were used. A survey conducted using 108 randomly selected respondents revealed that about 54.9% of the respondents have an average household size and about 77.8% of the respondents spends 60% of their total income on purchasing food items for their household and about 58.3% of the respondents use their personal farm produce both for household consumption and sales up to 56.4% of the respondents indicated that they are in dire need of more food. 42.7% of the .total variation in food security index was explained by the regression model while the remaining 57.3% of the variation was accounted for by the exogenous factors. Major problems faced by the rural household include inadequate capital, lack of good road network, marketing of farm produce and insufficient or excessive rainfall. Social infrastructures should be provided and fanners should be given concession in disbursement of loans from financial institutions.