Food Security Determinants among Urban Food Crop Farming Households in Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated food security determinants among urban food crop farming households in Cross River State, Nigeria. A two-stage sampling technique was utilized to obtain a sample size of 217 urban food crop farming households. The study was conducted in three urban areas in Cross River State, namely: Calabar, Ikom and Ugep. Cross sectional data were collected through well structured questionnaires and oral interview. Data were analyzed using headcount index, food insecurity gap index, food surplus gap index as well as logistic regression. The result showed that only 52.5% of urban food crop farming households were food secure while 47.5% were food insecure. The food insecurity gap and food surplus index showed that food secure households exceeded the food security line by 44% while 53% of food insecure households fall below the poverty line. The logistic regression result revealed that, years of formal education, farming experience, age of farmers, farming as main occupation, household size, income from farm and output of food crops produce were major determinants of food security status of urban farming households in the study area. The study recommends among others that in other to increase the output of food crop produced by urban farming households, government should encourage the use of improved planting materials, adoption of improved land management techniques and fertilizer should be made affordable and available to farmers.