Correlates of farmers’ resilience to food insecurity in South-West Nigeria

Abstract

Recently, many developing nations are disproportionately experiencing the impact of shocks and stressors compared to the rest of the world due to increasing inadequate capability and capacity to withstand the shocks. In particular, farmers and farming households are faced with diverse repeated and unanticipated shocks, which may be socio-economic, ecological and/or environmental in nature. All these shocks become unbearable and worsen in terms of food insecurity. The welfare costs associated with the shocks are significant, attracting humanitarian and development policy experts’ attention to developing suitable interventions to build a resilient food system and society. Consequently, this study analyzed the correlates of farmers’ resilience to food insecurity in South-West Nigeria. Drawing on the data collected from 472 smallholder farmers randomly sampled, descriptive statistics, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s food insecurity experience scale approach, composite score technique, principal component analysis (PCA) and Structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that more than half (55.3%) of the respondents were inadequate in almost all the resilience indicators and components, had low resilience capacity, and were vulnerable to food shocks and food insecurity. In comparison, only 7.8% have a high resilience capacity to be a buffer against food shocks. 54% of the respondents fall into a high food insecurity category, while only 1.9% fall into a very-low food insecurity continuum. The SEM analysis also revealed that social safety net (p<0.01), climate extreme events (p<0.01), access to essential services (p<0.01), presence of enabling institutional environment (p<0.01), and technical level (p<0.05) made direct impacts on the farmers’ food insecurity status. Conversely, possession of assets (p<0.01), and social capital/neighborhood effect (p<0.1) had inverse impacts on the farmers’ food insecurity status. The study recommended transparently implementing a social protection program to assist the farmer in building buffers against shocks. There is also a greater need for sustained investments across the resilience pillars and indicators to build farmers’ resilience capacity to food insecurity and other shocks.

Keywords: {'name': 'Farmers, Resilience, Food insecurity, PCA, SEM, Nigeria '}

Authors & affiliations

Seyi Olalekan Olawuyi
Affiliation not supplied

Olusegun Jeremiah Ijila
Affiliation not supplied

Deposited references

Supplied references, not a list of publications citing this article.

Akinnagbe, O., & Owolabi, K. (2021). Evidence-Based Practices: Interventions to Enhance Household Resilience to Food Crises in West Africa. FSP Best Practices 05 Report. International Food Policy Research Institute. Available from: https://www.foodsecurityportal.org/

DOI: 10.1596/1813-9450-7170

DOI: 10.3362/9781780440057

DOI: 10.1002/9780470665480.ch21

DOI: 10.1007/s12571-019-00968-1

Babatunde, R. O., & Olagunju, F. I. (2021). Cash or food transfer? Assessing the effectiveness of social safety nets for households during Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria. Paper presented at the DAAD Alumni Event and International Conference on Sustainable Health and Food Systems in relation to Climate Change and Covid-19 Pandemic, held at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

DOI: 10.1186/s40100-020-00167-z

DOI: 10.1007/s12571-020-01076-1

Béné, C., Riba, A., & Wilson, D. (2018). Measuring changes in resilience as a result of the SUR1M project in Niger. Available from: https://www.itad.com/wpcontent/uploads/2018/05/DFIDBRACED_EA3-Impact-Evaluation_Niger_Final-for-DFID.pdf. Accessed 28 April 2022.

DOI: 10.1002/9781118619179

Boukary, A. G., Diaw, A., & Wünscher, T. (2016). Factors Affecting Rural Households’ Resilience to Food Insecurity in Niger. Sustainability. http://10.3390/su8030181

Ciani, F., & Romano, D. (2013). Testing for household resilience to food insecurity: Evidence from Nicaragua. Department of Economics and Management. University of Florence.

DOI: 10.1002/jid.3335

d’Errico, M., Pietrelli, R., & Romano, D. (2016). Household Resilience to Food Insecurity: Evidence from Tanzania and Uganda. Contributed Paper prepared for presentation at the 90th Annual Conference of the Agricultural Economics Society, April 4-6 2016, Warwick University, Coventry, UK.

DOI: 10.1186/s40663-015-0058-z

Demeke, M., & Tefera, N. (2013). Sustainable Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security: The Case of Farming Rural Households in Ethiopia; Agricultural Development and Economics Division (ESA), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): Rome, Italy.

DOI: 10.4060/cb4474en

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (2016). Analysing Resilience for Better Targeting ad Action. Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis II (RIMA)-II. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome. Italy. Retrieved from: https://www.fao.org/3/i5665e/i5665e.pdf

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (2016). Increasing the resilience of agricultural livelihoods. Available online from: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5615e.pdf

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (2020). Gendered impacts of COVID-19 and equitable policy responses in agriculture, food security and nutrition. Policy brief. Retrieved from: http://www.fao.org/policy-support/tools-and-publications/resources-details/en/c/1276740/

DOI: 10.4060/cb3673en

Hellin, J., & Hansen, J. (2017). Building Agricultural Resilience through Insurance in Nigeria: Information Note. Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) & CGIAR.

Hertel, T., Elouafi, I., Ewert, F., & Tanticharoen, M. (2021). Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses – Action Track 5. Paper presented at the Scientific Group of the UN Food Systems Summit, March 8, 2021. Retrieved from: https://sc-fss2021.org/

HLPE (2020). Impacts of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition: developing effective policy responses to address the hunger and malnutrition pandemic. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb1000en

Hu, Husueh-Sheng (2019). Introduction to Path Analysis. CFDR Workshop Series. Center for Family and Demographic Research, U.S.A. November 18, 2019.

DOI: 10.1186/s40100-021-00186-4

Lawal, A. (2020). Food system resilience in Nigeria: farmers perspective Dissertations & Theses in Natural Resources. 328. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natresdiss/328

DOI: 10.1080/03031853.2014.915486

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1104185

DOI: 10.1186/s40100-021-00188-2

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-61194-5_13

Midi, H., & Bagheri, A. (2010). Robust multicollinearity diagnostic measure in collinear data set. In Proceedings of the 4th international conference on applied mathematics, simulation, modeling, World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS), 138-142.

DOI: 10.1007/s10708-019-10071-9

DOI: 10.1007/s10708-020-10214-3

National Bureau of Statistics (2019). Nigeria Poverty and In Equality report 2019. Retrieved from http//:www.nigerian.stat.gov.ng/elibrary

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) (2020). 2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria: Nigerian Living Standards Survey Report (NLSS). Retrieved from: https://nigerianstat.gov.ng/download/1092

Ojo, I., Akin-Olagunju, O., Yusuf, W., & Yusuf, S. (2019). Determinants of Vulnerability to Food Insecurity among Rural Households in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Economics (NJAE), 9, 1, 45-55.

Olabisi, L. S., & Liverpool-Tasie, S. (2018). Building Resilience in Nigerian Agriculture. Retrieved from: https://www.agrilinks.org/post/building-resilience-nigerian-agriculture

Olaniyi, O. (2020). Oke-Ogun: A regional breadbasket blighted by kidnappers, poor roads (Oyo State, Nigeria). Available at: https://punchng.com/oke-ogun-a-regional-breadbasket-blighted-by-kidnappers-poor-roads/.

DOI: 10.1108/IJSE-11-2018-0624

Olawuyi, S. O., Olapade-Ogunwole, F. & Raufu, M.O. (2011). Shocks and Coping Strategies of Rural Households: Evidence from Ogo-Oluwa Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria. International Journal of Agricultural Management and Development (IJAMAD), 1(4), 259-266.

DOI: 10.1016/j.wdp.2021.100387

Rapsomanikis, G. (2015). The economic lives of smallholder farmers. An analysis based on household data from nine countries Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5251e.pdf

DOI: 10.1186/s40100-019-0124-x

Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa (SDGC/A), (2021). Africa 2030: SDGs within Social Boundaries, Leaving No One Behind Outlook: International Virtual Conference organized by The Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa.

Tefera, N., & Kayitakire, F. (2014). Household Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security: Empirical Evidence from Rural Household in Ethiopia. Paper presented at the Conference on: Information for Meeting African's Transformation and Food Security Goals - IMAAFS

Addis Ababa, 1-3 October, 2014.

DOI: 10.1186/s40100-019-0120-1

USDA (2012). Six-item Short Form of the Food Security Survey Module. Available at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/survey-tools.aspx

World Health Organization (WHO) (2001). Declaration of Helsinki. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 79(4), 373-372. https://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/79(4)373.pdf

Wright, H., Kristjanson, P., & Bhatta, G. D. (2012). Understanding adaptive capacity: Sustainable livelihoods and food security in coastal Bangladesh. CCAFS Working Paper No.32. CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Copenhagen, Denmark. Available online from: www.ccafs.cgiar.org

Yamane, T. (1967): Statistics: An Introductory Analysis, 2nd Ed., New York: Harper and Row.