ABSTRACT
A household is food secure when all members of its household have access to sufficient food needed to sustain them and live a healthy life. This study evaluated the household food security and the anthropometric status of women in Oru-East LGA, Imo State. The study is a cross sectional study which includes women (not pregnant or lactating) in Oru-East Local Government Area in Imo State. The sample for the study was 200 women. The study collected food security data using the food insecurity experience scale questionnaire, while the height and weight were realized by taking the measurements of the women. The data realized were analyzed using descriptive statistics and person correlation. The study found that many (44.0%) of the women stopped at secondary education, some (35.0%) were civil servants, more than half (54.5%) were from households of 4-6 persons. The food security status of the women showed that majority (67.0%) of the women were food secure and only 3.5% were severely food insecure. The result on anthropometric status of the women showed that almost half (47.1%) of the women were overweight, while more than half (57.2%) were at moderate risk of obesity judging from their WHR results. The result finally revealed that there was a significant (P<0.05) relationship between food security status and anthropometric status of the women. The study however concludes that the women in Oru-East L.G.A in Imo state were food secure. The study among others recommended that nutritional educational program should be organized for the women to help them improve their food choices
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE i
CERTIFICATION.
ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
LIST OF TABLES viii
ABSTRACT ix
CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Statement of
the Problem 4
1.2 Objectives of the Study 6
1.3 Significance of the Study 6
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1 Concept of food security
7
2.1.1 Availability
8
2.1.2 Accessibility
8
2.1.3 Utilisation
9
2.1.4 Stability
9
2.2 Food insecurity
10
2.2.1 Chronic food insecurity
10
2.2.2 Transitory food insecurity
11
2.3 Factors Affecting Household Food
Security
11
2.3.1 Food price 11
2.3.2 Income inequalities
12
2.3.3 Political instability and poor
management
12
2.3.4 Natural disaster
13
2.3.5 Rapid population growth
13
2.3.6 Health issues
14
2.4 Effect of Household Food Insecurity
14
2.4.1 Hunger
14
2.4.2 Malnutrition 15
2.5 Determinants of Household Food
Security
15
2.5.1 Household size
15
2.5.2 Household income
15
2.5.3 Sex of household head
16
2.5.4 Age of household head
17
2.5.5 Educational level 17
2.6 Measurements and Indicators for Food
Security
18
2.6.1 Experiential indicators 18
2.6.2 Self-assessment measurement
19
2.6.3 Household consumption and
expenditure surveys 19
2.6.4 Dietary diversity
20
2.7 Malnutrition in Women and
Anthropometry 21
2.7.1 Malnutrition in women
21
2.7.2 Anthropometry
23
CHAPTER 3
MATERIALS AND METHODS
3.1 Study Design
25
3.2 Area of Study
25
3.3 Population of the Study
26
3.4 Sampling and Sampling Techniques 26
3.4.1 Sample size
28
3.4.2 Sampling procedure
28
3.5 Preliminary
Activities
28
3.5.1 Preliminary visit
29
3.5.2 Training of research assistants
29
3.5.3 Informed consent
29
3.6 Data
Collection
29
3.6.1 Questionnaire
administration
29
3.6.2
Interview
29
3.6.3
Anthropometric measurements
31
3.6.4 Assessment of food security
31
3.7 Data Analysis 31
3.8 Statistical Analysis
32
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Personal and Socio-economic
Characteristics of the Women 33
4.2 Food Security Status of the Women
37
4.3 Anthropometric Status of the
Women
39
4.4 Association between Personal and Socio-economic
Status of the women
and
their Food Security Status
41
4.5 Association
between Food Security Status of the Women and their
Anthropometric Status
43
4.6 Relationship
between Food Security Status and Anthropometric Status of the
Women
45
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Conclusion
47
5.2 Recommendations
47
References
48
Appendix 62
LIST
OF TABLES
Table 4.1: Personal and Socio-economic
Characteristics of the Women 35
Table 4.2: Food Security Status of the
Women
38
Table 4.3: Anthropometric Status of the
Women
40
Table 4.4: Association between
Personal and Socio-economic Status of the Women
and their Food Security
Status
42
Table 4.5: Association between Food
Security Status and Anthropometric
Status of the Women
44
Table 4.6: Relationship
between Food Security Status and Anthropometric
Status of the Women
46
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION
Food security, being one of the major issues of
the present development dialogue, has been prioritized in domestic economic
policies of many developing countries and also in the agendas of many
international organizations especially in Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO). A household is food secure when all members of its household have access
to sufficient food needed to sustain them and live a healthy life (Tonukari and
Omotor, 2010). Households are food secure when they have access to the amount
of safe food needed by all members of the household. At the household level,
food security refers to the ability to secure sufficient food by either
producing or purchasing food for all members of the households (Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 2010a).
In Nigeria, agriculture is the mainstay of the
country’s economy (International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD),
2012), going by the fact that agricultural sector contributes about 40% to the
economy and provides a livelihood for about 90% of the rural population
(Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2008; FAO 2011; National Bureau of Statistics,
2012). Despite the contribution of agriculture to Nigeria’s economy, subsistence
farming is widely practised with up to 90% of food in the country being
produced by micro-scale farmers with small land holdings who practise mainly
rain-fed agriculture. However, widespread food insecurity in Nigeria has been
attributed to poor agricultural output and prevalent poverty in the country
with an estimated 70% of Nigerians suggestively being food insecure (Obayelu,
2010; Kuku-Shittu et al., 2013).
In 2019, it was revealed that close to 690 million
(8.9% of the world's population) people are estimated to be undernourished
globally. This showed that the number of hungry people continued to rise
steadily since 2014 and projected to increase to 841.4 million (9.8%) where
Africa will have 51.5% (433.2million) share, the highest number of malnourished
people globally by 2030 (FAO et al.,
2020a).
However, considering the number of people in food
crisis around the world, the 2020 Global Report on Food Crisis (GRFC 2020)
reported that about 135 million people in 55 countries and territories are
suffering from acute food insecurity while 73 million of this figure are from
36 countries in Africa (Food Security Information Network/Global Report on Food
Crisis, 2020; Otekunrin et al., 2020abc).
Women and girls are the majority of the world’s
food producers and they make up 43% of the agricultural workforce in the global
south (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere Food and Water Systems,
2020). In Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa, women and girls produce nearly
70% of the region’s food crops by volume (Everjoy et al., 2020). Yet, Women and girls make up 60% of the population
facing chronic hunger, and moderate and severe food insecurity are higher among
females than males (United Nations, 2012a; Cooperative for Assistance and
Relief Everywhere Food and Water Systems, 2020). This is because the labour
does not mean that women and girls have equitable access to the information and
resources that they need to produce or sell food; instead, gender inequalities
often constrain their access. This is particularly true for women and girls
living in rural areas, who must contend with difficulty transporting their food
commodities to market over long distances, low commodity prices or limited
access to markets, and the frustration of trying to obtain agricultural inputs
such as seeds and tools suitable for small-scale farmers rather than industrial
farms (United Nations, 2012b). However, Women are critically important to
maintaining or improving food and nutrition security, but their value is not
reflected in their consumption patterns. Instead, their food consumption is
shaped by gender norms. In many households, these norms dictate that women eat
last, eat little, and eat the least nutritious foods (Cooperative for
Assistance and Relief Everywhere, 2020). This gendered eating pattern
negatively affects women’s and girls’ nutrition and places them at higher risks
of malnutrition and anemia, which can be especially damaging to women who are pregnant or lactating and therefore
have higher nutritional needs (Michelle and Priya, 2016).
According to the World Food Program (WFP), food
insecurity mostly affects the people living below the poverty line, especially
due to economic factors (Osmani et al.,
2016), such as rising food prices and unemployment. Poor people mostly depend
on markets for their food and spend 70% of their income purchasing food from
markets (Levay et al., 2013). The
roles that men and women play regarding food security in their households are
usually different; while both men and women are income earners, women play an
important role in food security as food producers, processers and preparers,
household managers, and food providers for their families. Because of their
multiple roles in households, it has been identified that women are key players
in overcoming food insecurity at household level.
In this view, the study focuses on the assessment
of Household Food Security and Anthropometric Status of Women in Oru-East Local
Government Area, Imo State, Nigeria.
1.1
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Food security is of global concern, with about 10%
of the global population and 19% of Africans severely food insecure (Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations et al., 2020b).
Following the world food crisis, discussions
around food security have been topical, particularly in developing countries,
and several recent documents (Akiwumi, 2020; Canadian Security Intelligence
Service (CSIS), 2020; Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2020; Swinnen and
McDermott, 2020; WorldBank, 2020; World Health Organization (WHO), 2020), as
well as peer reviewed literature (Abate et
al., 2020; Shupler et al., 2020;
Udmale et al.,2020; Wolfson and
Leung, 2020), have documented the possible consequences of the COVID19 pandemic
on food security, given different scenarios. While the World Food Programme
(WFP, 2020) suggests that the pandemic could lead to a doubling of the
population exposed to acute food insecurity in low and middle income countries
(LMICs), including Nigeria. Wolfson and Leung (2020) and Arndt et al. (2020) suggest that measures
deployed to minimize the spread of COVID19 will disproportionately affect
households with low levels of income and jeopardize household food security.
The number of African countries relying on
external food aid has increased from 20 in 2009 to 31 in 2019 (Caramel, 2019).
Violent conflict, the effects of climate change and economic instability are
major factors leading to food insecurity and they contribute to pushing already
marginalized people into extreme situations of poverty and even famine-like
conditions (Food Security Information Network, 2019). According to the latest
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report (2018), there is
already evidence of farmers migrating as temperatures increase, exacerbating
inequality as those least able to cope are forced to uproot their lives.
Marginalized communities including indigenous, pastoral, agricultural and
coastal communities will suffer the most as food and water become less
available, health risks increase and their lives and livelihoods are
jeopardized.
Women farmers remain on the razor edge of extreme
shocks to the system and in a warming world, with a growing number of hungry
people and more conflicts, they face ever greater risks. Indeed, according to
FAO, ‘Women are slightly more likely to be food insecure than men in every
region of the world’ (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2017), especially if they
live in rural areas, where poverty and food insecurity are very much linked,
and especially in a context of increased reliance on markets and a decrease in
subsistence agriculture.
The double burden of malnutrition, representing
the coexistence of underweight, overweight/obesity, and diet‐related
non‐communicable diseases within individuals, households, and populations has
also been on the rise in Nigeria. Reports show adult overweight and obesity to
be 33.3% (World Health Organization, 2015a) and 11.0% (WHO, 2015b),
respectively, whereas diabetes prevalence is 7.9% (WHO, 2014). One study
predicted that diabetes would cause about 52% of mortality in Nigeria by 2015
(Ekpenyong et al., 2012); however, in
a recent review by Adeloye et al.
(2017), overall mortality rate was 30.2 per 100,000 population, which amounted
to 54,297 deaths in Nigeria in 2015 based on the United Nation’s population
projection for Nigeria. The causes of malnutrition in Nigeria include poverty,
food and nutrition insecurity, improper feeding and caring capacity, cultural
factors, and economic and political structures (Adeloye et al., 2017).
Although, those that have sought to study the link
between food security and the anthropometric status of women are scarce. To
effectively fight malnutrition, it is important that additional research be
carried out to understand how household food security impacts on the
anthropometric status of women. Only then can proper measures be developed and
implemented, and cause a positive and significant change.
1.3
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The general objective is to determine the
Household Food Security and the Anthropometric Status of women in Oru-East LGA,
Imo State. The specific objectives are to:
I.
Determine the personal data and socio-economic status
of the women
II. Assess household
food security status
III. Assess the
anthropometric status of the Women
IV. Determine the
relationship between household food security and the anthropometric status of
women
1.4
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
Information obtained from this research will be
beneficial to both the public sector as well as the private food markets in
combating households food insecurity in order to bring about a long term
development in the country. It will also contribute to existing academic
literature and can be used by researchers, policy makers, and other relevant
stakeholders to develop and implement strategies that can uplift the lives of
the women.
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