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Abstract

This study assessed the severity of food insecurity among female-headed households in ‎Oredo local government area of Edo State. The objectives of the study were to describe the ‎socio-economic characteristics of female-headed households, identify the causes of food ‎insecurity among female-headed household, ascertain food accessibility among female-‎headed households and determine the severity of food insecurity among female-headed ‎households in the study area. Total sample size of 100 respondents was randomly selected ‎from 5 communities selected out of 33 communities that make up Oredo local government. ‎This involved a simple random selection of 20 respondents from each village. The ‎instrument used to obtain data from the respondent was a structured questionnaire validated ‎by the researchers. Data were analyzed using mean, frequency and percentages. The result ‎revealed that, high cost of food items (mean = 3.75), inadequate funds for food purchase ‎‎(mean = 3.71), pests and diseases of field crops, livestock and other agricultural produce ‎‎(mean = 3.62) are the major causes of food insecurity in the study area. Though food ‎accessibility indicated that 51.60% of female-headed households in the study area eat less ‎preferred food, 50.60% eat just a few kinds of food while 46.50% reduces quantity of food ‎eaten by all household members; however, majority of the households (62.67%) were found ‎to be moderately food insecure. Therefore it is recommended that Government in Nigeria ‎through its agricultural support agencies should embark on target-oriented supply of ‎improved agricultural inputs/incentives to women small-scale farmers on a sustainable ‎basis to enhance food production at the household level‎.