An assessment of youth migration and food security among farming households in Kwara state, Nigeria
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Date
2020
Journal Title
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Publisher
Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development
Abstract
Food insecurity is quickly becoming a key topic in
economic growth and development. The Nigerian food inse-
curity situation is deteriorating due to the frequent migration
of energetic and able-bodied youth from rural to urban areas.
Hence, this study examined the food security status before
and after youth migration and assessed the impact of youth
migration on farming household food security. A two-stage
sampling technique was employed to obtain data from 240 re-
spondents. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics,
the food security index and binary logistic regression. The
results revealed that most (86.3%) of the respondents were
males with an average age of 48.5 years. The reasons behind
youth migration are poor roads, the search for white-collar
jobs and the laborious nature of farming. Furthermore, the av-
erage yield before and after youth migration was 1878.8 kg/ha
and 885.9 kg/ha of grain equivalent, respectively. Moreover,
61.7% of households were food-secure while 38.3% were
food-insecure before youth migration. Worse still, after youth
migration, 70% of the households were food-insecure and
30% were food-secure. The variables determining the food
security of a given area were the ratio of rural youth migrants
to household size, crop yield difference, level of education,
household size, food crop losses, the volumes of cereal, leg-
ume, and root and tuber crops consumed and access to remit-
tances. Governments at all levels should provide basic infra-
structural facilities in rural areas to encourage youth to stay
home. Young people should also be made aware of the negative
consequences of migration. Policies aimed at household size
reduction should be implemented to increase household food
security as well.
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