Influence of socio-economic characteristics on rural farmers’ food consumption in Ogun state
Oluwasanya OP, Aihonsu JOY, Akerele EO, Onasanya AS, Yangomodou OD and Ogungbayi GB
The study analysed influence of socio-economic characteristics on farmers’ food consumption in Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State with a view to providing policy information toward enhancing the nutritional status of Nigeria. The prevalent problem of hunger and malnutrition in developing countries like Nigeria necessitates the development of goals to reduce the number of chronically undernourished people. The challenge of many countries of the world is the problem of food and nutrition security. The survey was achieved through cross sectional data that was collected by employing stratified random sampling on the socio-economic characteristics and consumption expenditure of 120 sampled households of which only 112 questionnaires were relevant for the analysis using descriptive and regression techniques. This study confirmed that 76.8% of the household farmers had average income below N30,000 per month. The household farmer’s expenditure was N4,961.24 and per capital average expenditure was N925.605. This revealed that the level of poverty in the study area is very abnormal and needs urgent attention. Based on these findings, it was recommended that appropriate, achievable and attainable poverty alleviation/income enhancing programmes should be put in place and that income should be redistributed in favour of low-income group to benefit the identified demographic groups which should also be extended to all Nigerians especially the low-income earners.
