ABSTRACT
The study assessed the effectiveness of homestead garden on food security among rural households in Abia State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study described the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents; identified crops produced by respondents in the home garden; ascertained the respondent’s perception on home stead garden; ascertained the level of food security among the rural households; determined the contribution of home garden to the household food security; ascertained the effectiveness of homestead garden on food security among rural households; and identified the challenges associated with homestead garden in the study area. Multistage random sampling procedure was used in selecting 180 respondents. Data were collected using structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, mean scores, percentages and standard deviation as well as inferential statistics such as multiple regression were used in analyzing the data. The result showed that the respondents had a mean age ( = 50.7 years) and a mean household size ( = 6.6 persons) respectively. Majority (77.2%) of the respondents were married. Furthermore, the foremost garden crops produced in the study area were oha (91.1%), pawpaw (82.2%), uziza (72.8%), oranges (72.1%), and bitter leaf (71.1%). The respondents in the study had positive perception on home garden as affirmed by grand mean of 3.24. The study further showed that 57.8% of the homestead farmers in the study area were food secured. The major contributions of home garden to the household food security were wide range of crop varieties are at household disposal ( = 3.05), can be managed along with other farm enterprises such as apiary, livestock and agroforestry ( = 3.04), encourages organic farming, ( = 3.01), and produces high quality farm products ( = 2.98). Home gardening was shown to be effective on the household food security. The foremost constraints associated to homestead garden were water requirement is high during the dry spell (86.7%), low returns from the practice (82.2%), homestead gardening crops are susceptible to pests and diseases (81.1%), and requires specialized skills in managing the crop (80.0%). The result of the simple linear regression analysis showed that home gardening output had significant effect on the level of food security at 5% significance level. The result of the multiple regression analysis also showed that the coefficient of marital status (10630.76), education (1341.669), and labour cost (-6678.73) were significantly related to food security. The study recommends awareness campaigns on increasing the number of trees to be planted in homestead, promotion of fruit trees planting and improvement of the extension-farmers ratio to increase extension-farmers coverage.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Declaration ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgements v
Table of Contents vi
List of Tables viii
List of Figures ix
Abstract x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the
Study 1
1.2 Statement of Problem 6
1.3 Research Questions 8
1.4 Objectives of the
Study 9
1.5 Hypotheses of the
Study 9
1.6 Justification of the
Study
10
1.7 Definition of Terms 10
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1 The Concept of Agricultural Production 11
2.2 Concept of Food Security 12
2.2.1 Food security in Nigeria 12
2.2.2 Food security situation in African
countries 16
2.2.3 The global world food security
status 17
2.2.4 Interventions to improve food
security status 18
2.3 Concept of Home Garden 19
2.3.1 Characteristics of a home garden 21
2.3.2 Prospects of home gardens 22
2.3.3 Benefits of home garden 24
2.3.3.1 Social benefits 25
2.3.3.2 Economic benefits 28
2.3.3.3 Environmental benefits 28
2.3.4 Constraints to the practice and
establishment of home garden 30
2.4 Household Food Security and Home
Gardens 32
2.4.1 Home
gardens for improved household food security 33
2.5 Theoretical Framework 38
2.5.1 Behavioral theory 38
2.5.2 Adoption theory 39
2.5.3 Diffusion Theory 41
2.5.4 Individual innovativeness theory 42
2.6
Conceptual Framework 43
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Study Area 46
3.2 Population of the Study 48
3.3 Sample and Sampling Procedure 48
3.4 Data Collection 48
3.5 Validity of Instrument 48
3.6 Reliability of Instrument 49
3.7 Data Analysis 49
3.8 Measurement of Variables 50
3.9 Model Specifications 52
CHAPTER
4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Socio-Economic
Characteristics of Respondents 55
4.1.1
Age 56
4.1.2
Marital status 56
4.1.3
Household size 57
4.1.4 Level
of education 57
4.1.5
Farm size 58
4.1.6
Primary occupation 59
4.1.7
Farming experience 60
4.1.8
Farm income 60
4.1.9
Extension contact 60
4.2
Crops People Produce in the Home Garden 62
4.3
People’s Perception on Home Stead Garden 64
4.4 Level
of Food Security among the Rural Households 66
4.5 Contributions
of Home Garden to the Household Food Security 67
4.6
Effectiveness of Homestead Garden on Food Security 70
4.7 Challenges
associated with Homestead Garden 72
4.8 Test
of Hypotheses 74
4.8.1 Hypothesis 1 74
4.8.2 Hypothesis
2 76
CHAPTER
5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary 79
5.2 Conclusion 84
5.3 Recommendations
84
References 87
Appendix
94
LIST
OF TABLES
4.1a: Distribution
of respondents according to their socioeconomic characteristics 55
4.1b:
Distribution of respondents according to their socioeconomic characteristics contd. 59
4.2: Distribution of respondents
according to crops produced in the home garden 62
4.3: Distribution of respondents according to their
perception on home garden in
the study area 64
4.4: Level of food security among the rural households in the study area 66
4.5: Contributions
of home garden to household food security in the study area 67
4.6: Mean ratings of effectiveness of home garden on
the household food security
in the study area 70
4.7: Distribution of respondents based on challenges
associated to homestead garden in the study area 72
4.8: Simple linear regression estimate of the effect of home
gardening output on
the level of food security
in the study area 74
4.9: Regression
estimates of the socioeconomic determinants of level of food security in the study area 76
LIST OF
FIGURES
2.1: Conceptual framework on
assessment of effectiveness of homestead garden
on food security among rural households
in Abia State, Nigeria. 43
3.1:
Map of Abia State, Nigeria
47
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In
most regions of countries across the globe, family food production systems
exist. There has been a substantial rise in overall poverty as a result of the
recent increase in global food prices which has pushed many people into
malnutrition. This has resulted in world progress towards the achievement of
the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which is the reduction of extreme
poverty and hunger by 2015 becoming a mirage (Ivanic and Martin, 2018).
Consequently, many households have been forced to adapt destructive methods of
survival like reducing food that they consume, eating staple foods instead of
micronutrient rich foods, disposing of household and agricultural production
assets, increased borrowing to survive and putting many households in financial
debt. All these coping measures have long term negative consequences for food
security, nutrition, health, and people development (Food and Agriculture
Organization, 2018; Klotz et al., 2018).
With the global population expected to
reach over 9 billion by 2050, there is a continuous need to increase food
production and buffer stocks. Over the recent years there has been growing
interest to strengthen and increase local food production in order to mitigate
the adverse effect of global food shocks and food price volatilities.
Consequently, there is much attention towards home gardens as a strategy to
enhance household food security and nutrition. It has been projected that
global food production will need to increase by 70% in order to meet the
average daily caloric requirement of the world’s population in 2050 (Okunoye,
2018). Moreover, the need for interventions is stressed as the resources
available for food production (i.e. land, water, labor and credit) are becoming
scarce and costly. The drive for agricultural innovation is further complex by
the growing issues of climate change and natural resource degradation.
Food
security implies physical and economic access, at all times to sufficient, safe
and nutritious food to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active
and healthy life (FAO, 2005). Food security involves ensuring a nutritionally
adequate and safe food supply at both the national and household levels. In
addition, it includes a reasonable degree of sustainability in the supply of
food during a given year and all year round. It also demands access by each
household to sufficient food to meet the needs of its members. A household is
considered food secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of
starvation (Wikipedia, 2010). This means that each household must always have
the ability, the knowledge and the resources to produce or procure the foods
needed to provide for all the nutritional requirements of the household members,
that is, a balanced diet providing all necessary energy, protein and micronutrients
(Olumakaiye and Ajayi, 2016). Generally, food security can be attained via
three sources: own production, purchase and aids. Of these, the only dependable
one is own production as food aids is transitory while purchase is influenced by
purchasing power (Ndaeyo, 2017). Access to stable and suitable food supplies is
a precondition for the establishment of food security at the household level.
Sustainability of food supplies refers to the capacity to ensure the long term
stability of the household food supply and the ability of households to meet
consumption and livelihood needs on a continuous basis. In addition, in a
food-secure community, the growing, processing and distribution of food is
regionally based, socially just and environmentally sustainable.
Multiple strategies are required to
address the issue of food production and food security. The choice of feasible
approaches hinges on the existing social, political, and economic conditions
and resources available to design and implement the intervention. Home gardens
are a time-tested local strategy that are widely adopted and practiced in
various circumstances by local communities with limited resources and institutional
support. Home gardening refers to the cultivation of a small portion of land
which may be around the household or within walking distance from the family
home. It can be described as a mixed cropping system that encompasses
vegetables, fruits, plantation crops, spices, herbs, ornamental and medicinal
plants as well as livestock that can serve as a supplementary source of food
and income.
Amonum
et al. (2009) reports that tropical
home gardens consists of an assemblage of plants which may include trees,
shrubs, vines and herbaceous plants growing in or adjacent to a homestead or
home compound. Okafor and Fernandes
(1989) quoted by Amonum et al. (2009)
reported that in this system, multipurpose trees and shrubs in a multistory
association with agricultural crops are raised with livestock in
homestead. In agroforestry it implies
the intimate association of multipurpose trees and shrubs with annuals and perennial
crops and invariably livestock within the compound of individuals with the
whole crop-tree-animal unit being managed by family labour (Anon, 2009).
The
practice of home gardening is already very common in most poor households in
rural areas. However, the practices are not on a large scale and therefore does
not offer adequate products for all year round nutrition. Home gardening is
classified into three (3) categories: “Traditional”, “improved” and
“developed”. Traditional gardens are maintained on scattered plots, seasonal
and with a few traditional fruits and vegetables such as pumpkins. Improved
gardens produce more varieties of fruits and vegetables than the traditional
gardens but only during certain times of the year and are maintained on fixed
plots. Developed gardens produce a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that
are available throughout the year and are maintained on fixed plots. (Helen
Keller International, 2008; Talukder, De pee and Bloem, 2008).
World
Bank (1986) quoted by Babatunde and Oyetoye (2010) defined food security as
access by all people to food of adequate quantity and quality consistent with
decent existence at all time. The World Food Summit in 1996, described food
security to exist when people have physical and economic access at all times to
food sufficient in quantity and quality needed for their daily activities
(World Bank, 1996). The challenges of food security can be at national, regional,
local or household levels. At national level for example, a nation is food
secured when the majority of the population have access to food of adequate
quantity and quality consistent with decent existence at all times. A region
within a country is food secured when the majority of the population in that
geo-political region has access to food of adequate quantity and quality
consistent with decent existence at all times (Babatunde and Oyatoye, 2010). Food security is jointly determined by
availability of food and accessibility to food of which availability is a
function of production of which home garden is primarily for food production of
quantity and majorly quality.
Home
gardening contributes to nutrition and household food security by providing
quick and direct access to different foods that can be harvested, prepared and
eaten by family members often daily. Even, landless or near landless and very
poor people practice home gardening on small patches of homestead land, roadsides, edges of field, vacant plots or in containers. Home gardening can be done
with little or no economic resource, by the use of locally available planting
materials, green manures, life fencing or indigenous methods of pest control.
Home gardening production system can easily be done by the poor (UNDP, 1996).
UNDP,
(1996) and Marsh, (1998), opined that home gardening is an important source of
supplementary income for poor rural and urban households around the world. The
garden may become the principal source of household food and income during
periods of stress like the pre-harvest lean season, harvest failure, prolong
unemployment, health or other disabilities suffered by family members,
agricultural or economic disruption caused by flood or war.
Marsh
and Talukder (1994) and Zerihun, Weyessa and Adugna (2011), stated that home
gardening provides a diversity of fresh foods that improve the quantity and
quality of nutrients available to the family. Household with gardens obtain
more than half of their supply of vegetables and fruits including secondary
staples such as plantain, cassava, cocoyam, sweet potato, yam, medicinal
plants, herbs and rearing of animals for their animal protein.
According
to FAO (1995), the returns to land and labour which are often higher than those
from field agriculture are potential economic benefits from home gardening. It
serves both as a source of income generation and food provision. They also
provide supplies for household needs example furniture, fuelwood, handicrafts,
baskets and as well as fodder for animals. Low cost gardening and low input has
almost no barriers to entry. Often times marketing of garden produce and
animals are often the only source of independent income for women. Home
gardening is just however only one of the possible ways of ensuring food
security for the poor and it should be considered in the context of a broader
national food security strategy (Zerihun, Weyessa and Adugna, 2011).
Household gardens in Abia State tend to
be located close to dwelling for security, convenience, and special care. They
occupy land marginal to field production and labor marginal to major household
economic activities. Featuring ecologically adapted and complementary species,
household gardens are marked by low capital input and simple technology.
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
The fundamental challenge the world faces today is
ensuring that millions of rural households living in poverty have access to
enough food and sustainable livelihood to maintain a healthy life (Oladele,
Emeghara, Ayodele, Ishola, Awobona and Olukotun, 2020). Food security has
remained a serious problem among rural households in different parts of
Nigeria, Abia State inclusive (Nwaiwu, Ibeagwa, Ukoha, Osuji, Essien, Chikezie
and Nwachukwu, 2020). Households are said to be food secure when they possess
the ability and enablement to access an affordable, quality and the right
quantity of food items needed for their survival (Oladele et al., 2020). According to Nwibo, Umeh, Eze, Ezeh, Nwofoke and
Mbam (2018), homestead gardens make vital contributions to household food
supply with substantial quantities of a variety of food all year round. Home
gardening also contributes to nutrition and household food security by
providing quick and direct access to different foods that can be harvested,
prepared and eaten by family members on daily basis (Oladele et al., 2020). Furthermore, Motbainor,
Arega and Tirfie (2022) reported that food insecurity in non-home garden
practicing households was relatively higher than practicing households in
various parts of Africa.
From
the foregoing, it thus appear that homestead garden can effectively improve
food security among rural households but the extent to which homestead garden
is effective in improving food security among rural households in Abia State
has not been extensively studied, hence the study. Furthermore, Nwibo et al. (2018) assessed the contributions
of homestead agriculture to food security of urban households in Ebonyi State
while Oladele et al. (2020) examined
the contributions of home gardening to household food security in Kaduna State.
Uzokwe, Giweze, and Ofuoku (2016) also assessed the contributions of home
gardening to family food security in Delta State. None of these studies
specifically assessed the effectiveness of homestead garden on food security
among rural households in Abia State. It is in this regard that
the study was conceived.
1.3
RESAERCH
QUESTIONS
The
study sought answers to the following research questions;
i. what are the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents?
ii. what are the crops
people produce in home garden in the
study area?
iii. how do people perceive home stead garden production in the study area?
iv.
what is the level of food security among the rural households in the study area?
v.
what are the contributions of home garden to the household food security in the study area?
vi.
how effective
is homestead garden on food security among rural household
in the study area?
vii. what are the challenges associated with homestead garden
in the study area?
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE
STUDY
The broad objective of the study was
to assess the effectiveness of homestead garden on food security among rural
households in Abia State, Nigeria.
The specific objectives were to:
i.
describe the
socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents;
ii. identify
the crops people produce in the home garden;
iii. ascertain
the people’s perception on home stead garden;
iv. ascertain
the level of food security among the rural households;
v. determine the contributions of home garden to
the household food security;
vi. ascertain
the effectiveness of homestead garden on food security among rural households;
and
vii. identify
the challenges associated with homestead garden in the study area.
1.5 HYPOTHESES OF THE
STUDY
The
following null hypothesis were tested in the study;
Ho1:
Home gardening output has no significant effect on the level of food security
in the study area.
Ho2:
There is no significant relationship between selected socioeconomic
characteristic of the respondents and their level of food security in the study
area.
1.6 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
This
study aimed to assess the effectiveness of homestead garden production
programme in improving household food security of the benefiting families. The
findings of the study will be used as a monitoring tool and basis for planning
for future projects by the Federal and State governments, extension agencies,
rural development experts and other policy makers in planning and implementing
extension intervention programmes.
1.7 DEFINITION
OF TERMS
Assessment:
an appraisal or evaluation is any systematic method of obtaining evidence from
posing question to draw inferences about the knowledge, attitudes and other
characteristics of people for a specific purpose.
Effectiveness:
the degree to which something is effective. Its also the capability of
producing a desired result or the ability to produce desired output.
Homestead:
a hose together with surrounding land and building, especially on a farm.
Garden:
an outdoor area containing one or more types of plants, usually plants grown
for food (vegetable garden) or ornamental purpose (flower garden) among sharing
of a common feature in a group.
Households:
collectively, all the persons who live in a given house; a family including
attendants, servants etc.
Login To Comment