ABSTRACT

The study analyzed the food security status among rural communities n

Ahia state, Nigeria. It sought specifically to determine the socio-economic

characteristics of the households; determine the factors influencing food

security status among households and determine the food security state of

the households in the study area. Analytically, the study employed

descriptive statistics, rnuItipIe regression analysis and the food security

index for attainment of objectives. The analysis showed that majority (61%)

of the respondents were male, 87.8% were between the age bracket of 18 to

35 years of age, the respondents in the study area is grossly dominated by

literate people, 75.6% of the respondents were single, 58% of the

respondents belonged to the 0 to 4 ts.erience, majority of the

respondents had a monthly income that was between N7,000 to N150,000

and that 61% of the respondents belonged to the household size category

with a household size of between 0 to 4 dependents. On the factors

influencing the food security status among households it was found that

among the variables considered as factors that influence the food security

status among households in the study area, gender, age, education, monthly

income, household size, and dependency ratio where all significant at

various level of significance. The overall food security state of the

households showed that the mean value of the FSI was 1.3671 implying that

their food security state is adjudged below average. The study concludes that

large part of interest ir food security status stems from the fact that food is

an essential ingredient of life and hence promoting fbod security is the key

to its sustenance.