Analysis of food security and poverty status of rural farming households in Bauchi state, Nigeria

This study analyzed the relationship between poverty and food security among rural faming households in Bauchi State, Nigeria. Multi stage sampling was used to select respondents for the study. Questionnaire was administered to one hundred and eighty households who were randomly selected from three different Local Government Areas. The data generated were analyzed using descriptive statistic, Household dietary diversity score (HDDs), Foster, Greer and Thorbeck (FGT), Food Security Index and Logit regression model. The result on dietary diversity revealed that about 61% of the respondents had high dietary diversity while 39% had low dietary diversity. Also, the FGT analysis showed that the poverty count index (Po) for entire households was 48.22, which implies that 48% of the farming household in the study area were poor. Result on food security revealed that 33% of the respondents were food secured while 67 % were food insecure. The logit regression result revealed that the co-efficients of age, educational level andhousehold size werenegatively significant while poverty status was positive. This implies that enhancing the welfare of the farmers will probably decrease their food insecurity status. Since poverty status in this study is measured in terms of the expenditure by households, their ability to increase the expenditure on food and non-food items means that they could be food secure. The study therefore challenges both governmental and non-governmental organizations to include health education in their advocacy and extension curricula especially on the health benefits of growing and consuming diverse foods. Rural households should also be enlightened on the importance of family planning as it relates to health of the entire family.Keywords: Poverty, Food security, Rural, Farming, Bauch