Food Security and Poverty Status of Farming Household in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area

ABSTRACT The study analyzed food security and poverty status among rural farm households in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Respondents’ socio- economic characteristics, food security status, determinants of household food security, poverty status and determinants of poverty. Primary data used for the study were derived from a three-stage sampling survey of 200 randomly selected farming households in 8 farming communities. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Food Security Index, binary logistic regression analysis and Forster-Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty model. The results for the socio-economic revealed that majority (84.5%) of the household head were male while females accounted for 15.5%, most (65%) of the respondents were between the age bracket of 30-40 years with a mean of 39.645 years. A greater percentage (77.5%) of the respondents were married and their household size stood at between 5-8 members with farming experience between 11-20 years with a mean farming experience of 16.290 years and greater percentage of the household head had no formal education. Majority (95.5%) of the respondents had no access to credit facility and were not members of cooperative society. About 96% of the respondents were into crop farming as a primary occupation, they cultivated an average of 1.55 hectares, 0.72 hectares and 0.78 hectares of farm land for mixed farming, livestock farming and crop farming respectively using family labor. The 2/3 mean per capita food expenditure per year was estimated to be N102,437.58 and the value was used as food security index, and majority (80%) of the households were food secured in the study area. The result further revealed that farm size, farming experience, gender and monthly income of household heads were positively related to households’ food security status, while household size of households’ head was inversely related to food security status. The 2/3 mean per capita household expenditure per year was estimated to be N140,780.5181 and the value was used as poverty line, and majority (84%) of respondents were non-poor, 15% moderately poor, and 1% were core poor. The poverty incidence, depth and severity were 0.16, 0.0847 and 0.0501 respectively among the rural farm households. Further analysis of the determinants of poverty revealed that farm area, gender and monthly income of household’s head were positively related to households’ poverty status while household size was inversely related to poverty status. Hence, farmers should be educated through series of awareness campaigns on the need to embrace off-farm activities. Also, policies should be made on intense family planning to reduce the size of household and female genders should be encouraged to actively participate in farming by providing incentives and traEtim Ekpong programmes. In addition, financial assistance should be offered to farming households to enable them acquire more lands for cultivation in order to enhance their production capacity.