Pages: (53-61 )
Abstract
Effective management of available resources through an efficient resource allocation pattern will enable a farming household to get as much income as possible from its production and consequently improve its economic access to food required by its members. The study examined determinants of food security status among maize-based farming households in Ogun State, Nigeria. Using a well-structured questionnaire, multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to collect data from one hundred and five maize-based farming households. The analytical tools employed include; Descriptive statistics, Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT), Probit regression model. The study revealed that 61.9% of the households were food secure and results showed that the mean per capita food expenditure of the farmers stood at N11,924.24. The study also revealed that the significant factors affecting food security status of the farmers include sex of household heads, farm size, age of household head, household size and hired labour (p<0.01). Based on these findings, the study recommends incentives that make farming attractive to the youth and government policies that ensure that food production is not affected by farm labour supply in order to increase food security.
Keywords: Efficient resource allocation, Farm labour, Foster Greer-Thorbecke. Multi-stage sampling,