Assessment of Food Security Status among Households in Esan Land
ABHULIMEN Josephine, Prof. Mrs. Idialu E.E. and Prof. Mrs. Uwameiye B.E.
1,2,3Department of Vocational and Technical Education, Faculty of Education Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, Nigeria.
ABSTRACT
The study examined assessment of food security status among households in Esan Land. Two research questions were analysed for the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study covers all the one hundred thousand, eight hundred (100,800) households in the targeted area. A sample size of 1,008 respondents was randomly drawn for the study using the multistage random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire designed by the researcher and titled: “Food Security Survey Questionnaire (FSSQ)”. The reliability of the instrument was determined by using split-half reliability method. It yielded 0.78 which was considered reliable for the study. For the collection of data, the researcher trained three research assistants on how to administer the questionnaire. Frequencies, percentages (%), mean scores (̅X) and Standard Deviation (SD) was used to analyze the research questions. The results showed that households in Edo Senatorial District of Edo State were not food secured. It is therefore recommended among others that Ministry of Health, should embark on educative programme that will help to enlighten household heads about adopting other strategies like collaborative buying of food among household heads to ease cost. Household also should embark on elaborate food production so that excess food from their produce can be sold to buy other food which the family do not produce.
Keywords: Availability, Accessibility, Utilization, Sustainability, Food Security