ANAYSIS OF OPTIMAL CROP COMBINATIONS AND FOOD SECURITY STATUS AMONG SMALL-SCALE IRRIGATION FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN NORTH-WESTERN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Food security has maintained a centre stage of discuss in the world. The main focus of this study was to determine the optimal crop combinations and food security status of small-scale irrigation farming households in North-Western Nigeria. Specifically,the study described the socio-economic characteristics of the households engaging in small-scale irrigation farming in the region; estimated their food security levels; identified the coping strategies used by the households when faced with food insecurity challenges; estimated the determinants of food insecurity in the region and to developed an optimum farm plan for the irrigation farmers in the region. Adopting a multi-stage sampling technique which included a random proportional factor, a total of 240 small-scale irrigation farming households were selected from four randomly selected states (Katsina, Kano, Sokoto and Zamfara) across the region. Using structured questionnaire, data were collected from the households and analyzed using descriptive statistics, freedom from hunger scale, coping strategy index, ordered logit and linear programming models. Results showed that the household heads were male dominated (89%), with an average age of 44.81 years, with 91% of them married and 52.1% of them various levels of western education. Most of the household heads (83.8%) were members of associations and have large household sizes (average of 12 people) composed of mainly unemployed members. Furthermore, the household heads were experienced irrigation farmers with an average of about 17 years irrigation farming and an average of 4 extension contacts per season. The study also found that the major source of credit used for irrigation farming was from personal savings and loans from friends and acquaintances (32.5%). About 49% of the households have close proximity to their farms and markets while the average irrigation farm size was about 1.2ha. The Study revealed that 53% of the households are in the moderately food insecure category. Furthermore, the study revealed that the predominant coping strategies used by households to withstand food insecurity are reducing the quantity of food consumed (74%) and eating less preferred meals (70%). The significant determinant of household food insecurity in the study area are total farm output (p≤0.01), farm size(p≤0.05), years of irrigation farming experience(p≤0.05), the distance of the household from their homestead (p≤0.01) and markets (p≤0.05), amount of credit accessed (p≤0.10) and frequency of extension visit (p≤0.01). Each of these had different marginal effects among different categories of food security levels. Majority (58%) of the farmers practice sole cropping and out of the 15 different crop combination enterprises included in the optimization equation used for the study, only five sole copping patterns (maize, tomato, wheat, pepper and cowpea) were included in the optimum farm solutions, implying that the sole cropping system was better than the mixed cropping systems in the region. The optimal solution showed a possible expansion in the size of land beyond 3.3ha and the sensitivity analysis shows that increasing the use of NPK and labour by 50 and 85% respectively will lead to about 23% increase in output. However, when the inputs were doubled, the increase in output was not significant. Most of the farmers (51%) indicated inadequate access to credit facilities and high interest rate (where accessed) as the major impediments in small-scale irrigation faming. The study therefore recommended the formation of a formidable farmers‘ association for easy access to loan facilities for use in small-scale irrigation farming in the region. Also, irrigation farmers were encouraged to concentrate on sole cropping pattern rather than mixed cropping.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the Study

Food security issues have continually attracted the attention of the world leaders. The discussions of the world food summit of 1996 in Rome (Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO,2014) and that of the trade ministers from around the world in Doha 2001 (Trueblood and Shapouri, 2002) were centered on world food security matters especially in the least developed countries of the world. In 1974, the world leaders declared during the world food conference that ―every man, woman and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in order to develop their physical and mental faculties‖ (FAO, 2014). As a follow-up to this, the world food summit of 1996 set the target of eradicating hunger in all countries, with an immediate view of reducing the number of undernourished people by half not later than 2015 (FAO, 1999). Eighteen years after the Rome declaration however and less than a year to the set target, FAO (2014) stated that about 805 million people were estimated to be chronically undernourished in 2012-14 and that one out of every nine people in the world still has insufficient food. It was also noted that most of the undernourished people (791 million) live in developing countries, includingNigeria. Currently, Nigeria is ranked thirty-eighth out of 76 countries on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), having a GHI of 14.7 (International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI, 2014). Though this shows a slight improvement over the 2011 figure of GHI 15.5 (IFPRI, 2011), it is still outside an acceptable range for the global food security target (GHI of ≤4.9).However, the GHI report of 2016 that show the countries status for the year 2015 is of great concern as Nigeria has sunk deeper to having a GHI of 25.5 a category described by IFPRI (2016) as serious. This is of concern because the GHI mirrors the food security situation of the nation. It is designed to comprehensively and track hunger globally and by country and region. The GHI is an indicator that is calculated based on four important components/indicators that is linked to correct feeding (food security). The first of these indicators is undernourishment (the proportion of undernourished people in as a percentage of the population). This reflects the share of the population with insufficient caloric intake. The second indicator is child wasting, which is the proportion of children under the age of five that have weights that are too low for their heights. The third indicator, child stunting is based on the proportion of children under the age of five that who suffer from stunting (low height for their ages). The second and the third indicators of GHI are reflection of acute and chronic under nutrition. The final indicator hinges on child mortality of children under the age of five which partially reflects the fatal synergy of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments (IFPRI, 2016).

In the report of Ibrahim and Oyewole (2010), major interventions have been initiated by the government of Nigeria aimed at increasing the domestic food production. This was as a result of the output drop in the agricultural and food sector following the shift of attention from agriculture to the oil sector in the early 1970‘s. One of such interventions include irrigation agriculture. Irrigation farming is the provision of the right amount of water at the right time for plant growth and development. Nigeria is characterized by fair to good soil environment but poor and unreliable rainfall, especially in the arid and semi-arid areasof the north-western Nigeria (Oriola,2009). According to Dauda, Asiribo, Akinbode, Saka and Salahu, (2009), irrigation farming has increased in Nigeria in the recent times and to improve agricultural productivity, especially in areas of low rainfall of northern Nigeria, irrigation farming has been adopted as best alternative.

They went further to state that globally; massive investments have been made in the development of irrigation schemes so as to make the supply of food possible throughout the year.

According to Anon (2008) as cited in Dauda et al.(2009), about 90% of the country‘s food is produced by small scale farmers cultivating small plots of land and depend on rainfall rather than irrigation system. Thus, how the country‘s economy performs depends largely on the performance of the small scale farmers because they dominate the economy. Therefore, given agricultural prominence in Nigeria‘s economy, performance of small scale farmers in the sector should be of great concern to policy makers (Asogwa, Umeh and Penda, 2011) especially towards being a food secured nation. One important thing to note again is that these small-scale farmers have needs or goals for going into the farming business. The basic and most important of such goals are food security and income generation to satisfy their non-food needs. Resource allocation therefore is done based on these felt needs.

Helen (2002) as cited in Okwoche and Asogwa, (2012) reported that food security maintains political stability and ensures peaceful coexistence among people. It was stated further that food insecurity results in poor health and hinders optimal performance in children and adults. According to FAO (2014), food security exists when ―all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active healthy life. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the level of food security among rural farming households that practice irrigation in the north-western Nigeria.

1.2         Statement of Problem

With majority of Nigerians residing in rural areas and about two-thirds engaged in crop and livestock production for their own use and market sales,yet the country faced with the challenge of meeting the basic food needs of its population (Adepoju and Adejare, 2013),shows that there is a food production gap. Food and nutrition security is closely tied to agricultural productivity. This is because higher production on one‘s own farm or from one‘s livestock improves the food security status of the household and vice versa. In some areas in the northern Nigeria, the long period of dry season does not help the matter in any way as people who depend on rain-fed farming had to wait till the next rainy season. Irrigation however provides an opportunity to reduce the wide gap between food production from rain fed agriculture and the food need of the population. Irrigation contributes to livelihood improvement through increased income, food security, employment and poverty reduction (Hussain and Hanjra 2004; Lipton 2003). Therefore, irrigation can be an indispensable technological intervention to increase household income (Speelman et al., 2008).

Nigeria is endowed with 74 million hectares of arable and another 2.5 million of irrigable land, yet the country is still hungry (Oriola, 2009). Empirical studies have shown that irrigation has a positive impact on household food security and poverty (Tekema and Oladele, 2011, and Jema and Mohammed, 2013). It was based on that, according to GoM (2011) in IFPRI (2014), many developing countries affected by drought and floods promote irrigation interventions to reduce poverty and promote food security. Despite such intervention, in Nigeria, the presence of chronic hunger is still manifest.According to West Africa Insight (2010), the northern states were more at the receiving end of the dwindling food production capacity, rising food prices, and dependency on food importation than in the other parts of the country. As noted by Abimbola and Kayode (2013), a large proportion ofNigeria households are still food insecure despite the several efforts by successive governments to achieve food security through setting up of various agricultural development institutions, programmes and projects. This is at variance with what one will expect if the opportunities provided by irrigated land in this region were fully maximized. This however leaves a gap be covered. If farmers with vast land resources (as is available in northern Nigeria) have the opportunity of food production throughout the year and yet they are not able to produce enough for their households, there is a problem of productivity.

North-west Nigeria is known for grain production as many are known to engage in farming. But at the same time, poverty is prevalent. Report has it that the region is the poorest (and no doubt, the hungriest). This is a source of worry calling for investigation of their farming activities. Most often than not, farmers are known to combine crops on their farms. This is in an attempt to produce most of the food they need (because many are small-scale farmers). Food security has a clear nexus with food production which is in turn determined by the cropping pattern of the households. If the farming households are working and yet are reported to be poor, then factors that are linked to productivity such as crop combinations may be the challenge. It is important to note that the farmers have their reasons for crop combination- meeting up with household food needs.

Ad de veld (2004), opined that the question of what to produce is critical and can constitute a problem to a producer. Producers attempt in answering this question, he further stated, depends on two factors: the demand (needs of the people) and the resources available. Most small-scale farming household‘s production is majorly stimulated by the household food needs and little attention is given to the household resource combination capacity to produce the enterprise combinations. This research therefore seeks to investigate the problem of productivity from the perspective of farm optimization. It is to see if the irrigation farming households are optimal in their choice of enterprise combinations. The enterprise combinations of households based on their needs will naturally attempt to include what will make the household to be food secured but may not necessarily be supported by the household available resources.

There are growing studies on food insecurity in the Northern part of Nigeria. Some of them only categorize the households to food secure and food insecure but few ones focus on describing the various levels of food insecurity. This is another gap that this study has covered which provided opportunity to give policy suggestions peculiar to each level of food insecurity. Policy formulation without disaggregating food security levels among households will not help. The examination of the effectiveness of food insecurity copping is sacrosanct and urgent especially among the irrigation farming households. Also, according to Niragira et al.(2015), there is an optimal farm crop combination mix that produces enough output to meet the need of household despite all constraints. Does this really exist among the irrigation farmers in the north-western Nigeria? This and more questions needed to be answered. In order to investigate properly, the following more research questions were asked:

1. What are the socio-economic characteristics of the small scale irrigation farmers in the study area?
2. What is the food security status of the small scale irrigation farmers?

• What are the coping strategies adopted by the small scale irrigation farmers to cope with food insecurity?

1. What are the socio-economic determinants of the food security status of the farmers;
2. What is the representative farm enterprise combinations among the small-scale irrigation farmers?
3. What is the optimum enterprise combinations of the small-scale irrigation farming households;

• What is the response of the optimal farm plan to variations in the level of inputs used? and;
• what are the challenges militating against food security among the small scale irrigation farming households in the study area?.

1.3         Objectives of the Study

The broad objective of this study was to examine the optimal crop combinations and food security status among small-scale irrigation farming households in North-western

Nigeria. Specifically, the study addressed the following objectives:

1. describe the socio-economic characteristics of the small-scale irrigation farming households in the study area;
2. determine the food security status of the small-scale irrigation farming households;

• identify the strategies adopted by the farming households in coping with food insecurity;

1. estimate the socio-economic determinants of household food security;
2. identify the irrigated cropping system among the farming households in the area;
3. develop an optimum farm plan forthe small-scale irrigation farming household‘s food security;

• estimate the response of the optimum farm plan to variations in the level of farm inputs and;
• identify and describe the constraints faced by the small-scale irrigation farming households in meeting their food security status.

1.4         Research Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were tested in the study.

1. Small-scale irrigation farming households in the study area are not food secure
2. There is no significant relationship between the food security status of the households and the their socio-economic factors.

• There is no significant relationship between the household food security status and their coping strategies,

1. Household representative farms are not operating at optimum level.

1.5         Justification of the Study

According to Morris (2001), there are two ways to address the nutritional problem of the rural poor. One is to strengthen the household resource base and the second is to enhance the management of their resources. This study will go a long way in providing empirical facts that will serve as a basis to give technical advice to these rural households on effective allocation of resources and selection of the best enterprise combinations.

According to Dare et al., (2013), though several studies on household food security have been conducted in Nigeria, more detailed analyses at the household level are still needed especially those that provide an understanding of the types of coping strategies adopted by households to tackle the problems of food shortages. Because of the need to shed more light on the implications of food insecurity on households‘ welfare and ways of promoting household food security, Abimbola and Kayode (2013) stated that changes in the food security status of households over time should be closely monitored with explanation given for the change. Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is a prime goal of the sustainable development goals of the world summit of the United Nations.Therefore, there is an urgent need to assess the impact of irrigation farming in relation to the sustainable Development Goal of eradication of hunger and poverty from Nigeria perspective. This study contributes to the growing literature on household food insecurity by addressing these knowledge gaps through the assessment of the determinants food insecurity of Nigerian farming households that practice irrigation. The households‘ food insecurity status is captured by a consumption coping strategy index. It also assesses the nature of consumption coping strategies used by households with a view to providing suggestions for increased sustainability of household food supply and better targeting policies.

This study would provide information for governments, developmentagencies and potential farmers who are interested in irrigation farming. Furthermore, the outcome of this study will serve as a good basis for making life impacting policies that will gear the region towards the achievement of the sustainable development goal of eradicating hunger completely by the year 2030 and equally cause an improvement of the countries position on the world‘s Global Hunger Index.

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